The family and legal defense team expressed great relief after Palestinian Liqa Kurdiya (33 years old) was released from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after more than a year of detention, amid warnings that the legal battle is not yet over against the policies of President Donald Trump’s administration towards immigrants and dissidents.
“We are overjoyed and relieved that Liqa can finally return to her family in New Jersey after a long year in detention. This is an important step in restoring Liqa’s rights, as she continues to be unlawfully targeted for her activism in defense of Palestinian rights,” said attorney Sarah Sherman-Stokes, who oversees the legal defense team, in a statement, as reported by Common Dreams
She added: “We will continue this fight in federal courts and in immigration cases for as long as it takes, not just for a meeting, but for the freedom of everyone who faces unjust reprisals simply for speaking out against genocide.”
Kurdiya, a New Jersey resident, was reportedly one of several Palestinian activists targeted by the Trump administration. She was detained during an ICE registration in March and quickly transferred to a detention center in Prairieland, Texas. An immigration judge ordered her release for the third time last Friday, marking the one-year anniversary of her detention, following renewed calls from human rights organizations such as Amnesty International-USA and Defend Rights and Resistance.
Her cousin Hamza Abu Shaban said: “We feel immense relief and gratitude for Liqa’s release. The past year has been extremely difficult for Liqa and our entire family. We are grateful to our community for standing by us, and to the prayers offered during Ramadan, which sustained us through our most difficult days.”
He added: “Although today is a powerful and emotional milestone, we know that this is just the beginning. Liqa’s voice, her strength, and her story will remain with us as we continue to strive for justice in a system that often resorts to unjust tactics, tearing families apart and causing long-term harm, as happened to us over the past year. We will continue to defend every person unjustly detained. Today we celebrate Liqa’s return, and tomorrow we will continue the fight for justice.”
For her part, lawyer Amal Thabet, one of the organizations representing Kurdiya, asserted that “Liqaa should not have spent a single moment in ICE detention, let alone a whole year.” She added, “Liqaa was punished simply for defending Palestinians, including her own family, and now justice has finally been served. We will continue to defend her rights and the rights of others to express support for the liberation of Palestine.”
According to her legal team, Liqa lost about 200 of her relatives in the bloody, US-backed Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip, which continued to kill Palestinians despite a ceasefire agreement last October.
Lawyer Sadaf Hassan said: “It is a great relief that Liqaa has been released after a full year of retaliatory and arbitrary detention simply for speaking the truth and protesting against the genocide in Gaza. It is infuriating that the government took so long to comply with the judge’s repeated orders.”
Despite her release, the Trump administration may continue to target her. The Associated Press reported on Monday that Department of Homeland Security lawyer Anastasia Norcross said the government opposed Liqa's release regardless of her bail, without indicating whether it would appeal for a third time.
Hassan added that the release of Liqa, at least for the time being, is “a belated reminder that the government cannot silence the Palestinian liberation movement,” and is also “a call to end an immigration system that profits daily from subjecting tens of thousands of people to the abuses and humiliation that Liqa has suffered.”
ICE continues to detain large numbers of immigrants, with the number reaching nearly 70,000 last month, despite the administration's claims that it is focusing on deporting the "worst elements." Data shows that most of those detained have not committed any crimes. Agents in cities such as Chicago and Minneapolis have violated the rights of protesters and law enforcement officers, and some of these violations have resulted in the deaths of American citizens in Minneapolis.
Travis Fife, a human rights lawyer, noted that “Leeqa’s return home today is the bare minimum. We must continue to emphasize the fundamental principle of the First Amendment that the government cannot abuse its power to punish people simply for using their voice.”
