Palestinian protester Leqaa Kordia released from US immigration detention

A Palestinian woman was released on bond from a Texas immigration detention center on Monday after a judge's order, the last pro-Palestinian activist held under the Trump administration's crackdown on protests against Israel's war in Gaza.



Leqaa Kordia, 33, who was raised in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, left the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, after more than a year there and was returning to her family in New Jersey, her legal team said.



Immigration authorities say they detained her in 2025 for overstaying her expired student visa though her attorney said she was in the process of securing legal residence. The U.S. government said local police arrested her at Columbia University in 2024 during pro-Palestinian protests over Israel's war in Gaza. Immigration Judge Tara Naselow-Nahas on Friday ordered her release on $100,000 bond, and the immigration case against her will continue.



It was Kordia's third bond hearing after two previous orders for her to be released on bond were automatically stayed by the government. Naselow-Nahas said the government's arguments against release on bond were "disingenuous."