Requa Cordia, a 33-year-old Palestinian woman who has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the United States since March, was rushed to the hospital after complaining of symptoms, according to media reports.
Cordia is being held in Texas after being detained as part of US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses across the country.
Her lawyers said she was targeted in 2024 near Columbia University in New York for protesting Israel’s genocidal war in the Gaza Strip, but the federal government said she was arrested on suspicion of overstaying her student visa.
Since her hospitalization on Friday, Cordia’s attorney and family have said they have not been able to speak to her and do not know her whereabouts.
Here’s what we know about Cordia and why she remains in custody.
Who is Cordia?
Cordia grew up in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah and moved to the United States in 2016. She entered the country on a visitor visa and lived with her mother, an American citizen, in Paterson, New Jersey, home to one of the largest Arab communities in the United States.
She later transitioned from a tourist visa to a student visa, according to the habeas corpus petition.
Cordia’s green card application was approved in 2021 after her mother applied to remain in the United States as a relative of Cordia. But her lawyers say her teacher gave her wrong advice and her student visa will expire in 2022.
Before her arrest, Cordia worked as a server at a Middle Eastern restaurant on Palestine Way in New Jersey and helped care for her half-brother, who has autism.
Cordia began protesting Israel’s war due to personal losses. Cordia said more than 200 of her relatives have been killed since the war began in October 2023.
Israel has killed more than 71,000 Palestinians and injured more than 170,000 others in the Gaza Strip in a war that human rights groups, the United Nations commission and a growing number of academics say amounts to genocide. Since a “ceasefire” began in October, Israel has killed more than 500 Palestinians and continues to restrict the flow of aid into Gaza.
If deported, Cordia would be handed over to the Israeli government.
Why was Cordia arrested?
She was first arrested in April 2024 during a protest outside the gates of Columbia University, but the case was quickly dropped.
On March 13, 2025, Cordia showed up at ICE headquarters in Newark, New Jersey, for routine immigration questions. There she was detained, “thrown into an unmarked van and sent 1,500 miles (more than 2,400 kilometers) away,” Cordia wrote in USA Today last month.
Cordia was not a student at Columbia University or a member of politics.
“Although I was not a student, I felt compelled to participate. After all, Israel, with U.S. support, ravaged Gaza, forcibly evicted my family, and killed nearly 200 of my relatives,” she wrote in USA Today.
Cordia is currently the only person detained at the Columbia campus protests. She is being held at the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas.
Protest leader Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian student with Algerian citizenship and a U.S. green card, was among those released. However, Mr. Khalil is still fighting a legal battle to remain in the United States with his American wife and children. Last month, an appeals court panel dismissed a lawsuit challenging Mr. Khalil’s detention and deportation order. The judges concluded that the federal court that ordered Khalil’s release last year lacked jurisdiction over the issue.
What are the charges against Cordia?
The US government claimed that Cordia’s remittances to relatives in the Middle East were evidence of possible ties to “terrorists.”
Cordia’s lawyers have continued to push for her release, arguing that she was targeted by federal authorities for participating in pro-Palestinian protests.
The federal government claims the case against Cordia is related to student visa overstays.
The Department of Homeland Security said in April that “her arrest had nothing to do with her extremist activities.” “Mr. Cordia was arrested for violating immigration law because he overstayed his F-1 student visa, which expired on January 26, 2022, due to lack of attendance.”
Cordia wrote in USA Today last month that she doesn’t consider herself a leader or an activist.
“I am a devout Muslim deeply committed to my faith and community. I am a Palestinian woman who enjoys playing the oud, making pottery, and hiking,” Cordia wrote. “I thought it was my moral duty and every constitutional right in this country to speak out against what rights groups and experts called genocide, unless that speech was in defense of Palestinian life.”
An immigration judge twice requested Cordia’s release. But it has been repeatedly blocked by a series of procedural and administrative moves.
“The Trump administration has exploited a rarely used procedural loophole to keep me locked up. This practice is currently being challenged in federal district courts across the country, with many calling the practice unconstitutional,” Cordia wrote.
How did Mr. Cordia spend his time in ICE detention?
Cordia has faced a number of challenges since being transferred to the Alvarado ICE detention center in March, including sleeping on a bare mattress on the floor and being denied religious accommodations, including halal food.
“The conditions in the ICE facility where I am being held are filthy, overcrowded, and inhumane,” Cordia wrote in an article for USA Today. “For months I slept in a plastic shell known as a ‘boat’, surrounded by cockroaches, with only a thin blanket. There is no privacy here.”
When Cordia’s cousin, Hamza Abushaban, visited her last year a week after her arrest, he was surprised to see dark circles under her eyes and confusion, he said in an interview with The Associated Press.
“One of the first things she asked me was why I was there,” Abushaban said. “She cried a lot. She looked like a dead person.”
Human rights groups and some Democratic Party leaders have called her a “political prisoner” and criticized the way the case was proceeded.
State Rep. Salman Bojani said conditions in the detention center were “suffocating.”
He said Cordia’s dorm had 60 mattresses crammed into a space designed for 20 women.
“She doesn’t even have clothes that fully cover her body. Community groups tried to provide her with more suitable clothes, but they refused,” Bojani said. “It violates religious obligations for male staff to enter the dormitory at any time and leave her body exposed.”
Amnesty International called for her release, saying ICE had “repeatedly violated” Cordia’s religious rights. “She is rarely provided with halal meals and is forced to eat food that does not meet her dietary requirements, causing significant weight loss,” the human rights organization said in a statement.
“During Ramadan, staff refused to save her food for when she could break her fast, forcing her to either go hungry or break her fast early,” Amnesty International said. “She is not provided with proper clothing for prayer or a clean place to pray.”
Why was Cordia hospitalized?
Abushaban said Friday that he learned about Cordia’s hospitalization in the morning from someone who was previously detained along with his cousin.
Cordia told the Dallas Morning News that he fell in the bathroom at the Prairieland Detention Center, hit his head and had a seizure.
In a statement Saturday, Cordia’s attorneys and family asked the Department of Homeland Security and Prairieland Detention Center for answers about her health and whereabouts.
“(Ms. Cordia) reportedly suffered a blackout and seizure at the Prairieland Detention Center and was admitted to the hospital yesterday morning,” the statement said, adding, “Neither her attorneys nor her family have received answers regarding where she was admitted, details of her medical condition, or whether and how ICE will ensure her health upon discharge from an undisclosed off-site hospital.”
“We have since learned that she plans to spend another night there, but we have not yet been able to speak to her directly and have no confirmation as to why she came to the hospital in the first place,” the statement said.
Her family told US media that they called all the nearby hospitals but could not find Cordia.
What were the Colombian protests about?
In 2024, a pro-Palestinian student camp at Columbia University sparked a global movement against Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza.
But the protests were dispersed and dozens of arrests were made after Columbia University allowed hundreds of New York City police officers onto campus.
Student demonstrators demanded an end to Israel’s war in Gaza and the divestment of universities from companies linked to the Israeli military.
Columbia University imposed harsh penalties on dozens of students who participated in the protests, including expulsion and revocation of degrees. University President Nemat “Minoush” Shafik has resigned after being criticized for his handling of the student protests.
The protests also sparked a confrontation between Columbia University and the Trump administration, with Trump administration officials alleging anti-Semitism on campus. Activists argued that the campus crackdown violated America’s right to free speech.
President Trump also withdrew millions of dollars in federal funding from the university, citing its failure to protect Jewish students. Colombia later settled the case, agreeing to pay the government $200 million over three years. In return, the Trump administration agreed to return some of the $400 million in subsidies that had been frozen or terminated.
