Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian woman held for nearly a year in a Texas immigration detention facility, said she suffered a seizure after fainting and hitting her head last week. Kordia said doctors treated her for the episode for three days and that she later returned to the Prairieland Detention Facility, where she has been held since March, the Associated Press reported. She linked the episode to what she described as “filthy” and “inhumane” conditions at the privately run facility.
Kordia said she was shackled throughout her hospitalization and prevented from calling family or meeting with lawyers. In a statement released through her attorneys, she said that, “For three days in the emergency room, my hands and legs were weighed down by heavy chains as they drew my blood and gave me medications,” and that she “felt like an animal.” She said her “hands are still full of marks from the heavy metal.”
Her lawyers previously warned that Kordia, described as a devout Muslim, had lost 49 pounds (22 kilograms) and had fainted in a shower, and that those issues were tied in part to the facility’s denial of meals that comply with religious requirements. In her statement, Kordia also said she blamed conditions inside the detention center for her health, telling lawyers that “I’ve been here for 11 months, and the food is so bad it makes me sick,” according to the report.
Kordia said doctors told her the seizure might have been related to poor sleep, inadequate nutrition and stress, the Associated Press reported. She added that, at Prairieland, daily life—including access to food and medicine and getting rest—was controlled by the private, for-profit operator of the facility.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Associated Press. However, a DHS spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, said in a statement to The New York Times that Kordia was not being mistreated and was receiving proper medical care, according to the report.
The Associated Press said Kordia is a New Jersey resident who grew up in the West Bank and was arrested during protests outside Columbia University in 2024. The report said her charges were dismissed and sealed, but that information about her arrest was later provided to the Trump administration by the New York City Police Department as part of an investigation described as related to money laundering.
The report said Kordia was taken into custody on March 13 during a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement check-in and that federal officials at the time described her arrest as part of a broader crackdown on noncitizens who had criticized Israel’s military actions in Gaza, pointing to her 2024 protest. She has not been accused of a crime, the Associated Press said, and it reported that an immigration judge twice ordered her released on bond, with the government challenging both rulings—an unusual step in cases not involving serious crimes.
In her statement, Kordia said the detention facility was “built to break people and destroy their health and hope,” and she said, “The best medicine for me and everyone else here is our freedom.” If her case returns her to court proceedings over release, she will be pressing her claim that conditions in custody contributed to her health crisis.