New York City’s First Lady, Rama Duwaji has recently shared an artwork in support of detained activist Leqaa Kordia. Posting on social media, she wrote, “there’s a lot going on but today I am thinking of Leqaa Kordia”.
Who Is Rama Duwaji?
Rama Duwaji is a Dubai-educated Syrian-American artist based in Brooklyn, New York.Duwaji is known for using drawn portraits and movement in her work to explore themes such as sisterhood, Arab identity, shared community experiences and political resistance. Many of her illustrations focus on pro-Palestinian messages, including depictions of Israeli violence, ethnic cleansing, and US involvement.
Who Is Leqaa Kordia? What We Know About the Detained Palestinian Woman in ICE Custody
Leqaa Kordia is a 33-year-old Palestinian woman who has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since March 13, 2025.
Kordia grew up in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank and moved to the United States in 2016 on a visitor’s visa. She stayed with her mother who is a US citizen in Paterson, New Jersey. She later changed her status to a student visa. Although her green card application was approved in 2021.
However, the government says her student visa was terminated in January 2022 because of lack of attendance which led to her overstaying.
Leqaa Kordia was first arrested in April 2024 during a protest outside Columbia University but that case was later dropped.
On March 13 2025, she went to ICE headquarters in Newark, New Jersey for what she believed were routine immigration questions. But instead, she was detained. She later wrote that she was “thrown into an unmarked van and sent 1,500 miles away”.
Kordia was not a student at Columbia and was not part of campus political groups. Explaining why she joined the protest, she wrote on USA Today that, “Though I was not a student, I felt compelled to participate. After all, Israel, with the backing of the United States, has laid waste to Gaza, forcibly displacing my family, killing nearly 200 of my relatives.”
The US government has said that the money Leqaa Kordia transferred to her relatives in the Middle East could point to possible ties to “terrorists.” But later, the Department of Homeland Security said that she was actually arrested for overstaying her student visa.
“Her arrest had nothing to do with her radical activities. Kordia was arrested for immigration violations due to having overstayed her F-1 student visa, which had been terminated on January 26, 2022, for lack of attendance,” they said.
Kordia has said she does not see herself as an activist. Writing in USA Today, she said, “I am a devout Muslim who is deeply committed to my faith and community.” She also said that speaking out against what she calls genocide was her “moral duty.”
An immigration judge has twice ordered her release, but those decisions have been blocked.
