She was a Palestinian woman He has been held in an immigration prison for about a year After participating in a protest in New York City, she said she had an epileptic seizure after fainting and hitting her head last week, an incident she linked to the “filthy” and “inhumane” conditions inside the privately run detention center.
Cordia meeting(33 years old) was hospitalized for three days after the seizure, which she said was the first in her life. She has since returned to the Prairieland Detention Center in Texas, where she has been detained since March.
In a statement issued by her lawyer on Thursday, Cordia said she was shackled throughout her hospitalization and prevented from contacting her family or meeting with her lawyer.
“For three days in the emergency room, my hands and legs were encumbered with heavy chains while blood was drawn from me and medications were given,” Cordia said. “I felt like an animal. My hands were still full of heavy metal marks.”
She said her doctors told her the attack was probably the result of lack of sleep, inadequate nutrition and stress. Her lawyers have previously warned that Kordia, a devout Muslim, lost 49 pounds (22 kilograms) and fainted while showering, in part because the prison denied her meals that complied with religious requirements.
The statement continued: “I have been here for 11 months, and the food is so bad that I feel sick.” “In Prairieland, your daily life — whether you can get the food or medicine you need or even get a good night’s sleep — is controlled by the private, for-profit company that runs this facility.”
Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press, but she said in a statement to The New York Times that Cordia had not been abused and was receiving appropriate medical care.
Cordia, a New Jersey resident who grew up in the West Bank, was among about 100 people arrested outside Columbia University during protests at the school in 2024.
The charges against her were dropped and sealed. But information about her arrest came later Given to the Trump administration By the New York City Police Department, which said it was told the records were needed as part of a money laundering investigation.
Last year, Kordia was among the first pro-Palestinian protesters to be arrested in the Trump administration’s crackdown on non-citizens who criticized Israeli military actions in Gaza. she The only one still imprisoned.
She has not been charged with a crime, and an immigration judge has twice ordered her released on bail. The government has appealed both rulings, an unusual step in cases that do not involve serious crimes, which leads to lengthy appeals procedures.
Cordia was detained during a check-in on March 13 with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. At the time, federal officials described her arrest as part of a sweep A crackdown on pro-Palestinian activists on campusPointing to her 2024 arrest outside Colombia as evidence of “pro-Hamas” activities.
Cordia said that she joined the demonstration after Israel killed dozens of her relatives in Gaza, where she was Maintains deep personal relationships. “My way to help my family and my people was to take to the streets,” she told The Associated Press in October.
Federal officials accused Cordia of overstaying her visa while scrutinizing payments she sent to relatives in the Middle East. Cordia said the money was intended to help family members whose homes were destroyed in the war or who are suffering.
An immigration judge later found “overwhelming evidence” that Cordia was telling the truth about the payments. Cordia’s lawyers say she was previously in the United States on a student visa, but mistakenly gave up that status after applying to remain in the country as a relative of a US citizen.
Cordia said in her statement on Thursday that the detention center was “built to break people down and destroy their health and hope.”
She added: “The best medicine for me and for everyone here is our freedom.”