Detained: The Last Columbia Protester

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Immigration officials taking Lika Cordia into custody Friday. This comes days after authorities arrested another protester, Mahmoud Khalil. This past March, ICE agents detained Lika Cordia. a young Palestinian woman living in Patterson, New Jersey. A year earlier, Cordia was arrested protesting outside Columbia University.

calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, where more than 175 of Cordilla's family members had been killed since the conflict began. Cordilla was let go after the protests, but the arrest put her on ISIS radar, and they showed up months later. took her into custody, and put her on a plane to a detention facility outside of Dallas, Texas. Cordia had entered the U.S. legally in 2016. She was applying for a green card through her mom, who was a U.S. citizen.

But in the process, her status had lapsed, leading to her detention. She's been held for more than seven months. A judge has twice ordered her release. Both times, the government appealed, accusing her of supporting Hamas, which Cordia has refuted in court. Laka Cordia is the last Colombia protester still in detention. For today's show, we contacted her cousin, Hamza Abushaban, who talks to Cordia almost every day. He recently recorded one of their phone calls. Hello?

hey hey what's going on how are you um surviving you're surviving but you're not you're not thriving no i'm just surviving for now Give me one second, Hamza. You got it. North, she's in visitation. The first week that she was in detention, I was in Dallas for work. And I extended my trip to pay her a visit. I packed extra shirts for her, deodorant, soap, and things like that. And the guards are saying, you can't come in here with anything. It's just like you see in the movies.

You can only talk to them through that phone, and there's a really thick glass in between. She's there with this dark blue jumpsuit, dark baggy eyes. That's when it kind of hit me like whoa This is like a lot more serious than what I thought it was gonna be When she picked up the phone the very first thing she said was Hamza why am I here? So Lulu

Do you remember, like, who was the first person that told you people were looking for you? Like, how did all of that happen? So I received a call from my mother telling me there are people asking for you. from the government. It was confused. Like, why? What do they want from me? At the beginning, I thought like they're missing a form, a paper or something.

Like, okay, I'm just going to solve this issue and then I'll have my green card soon. But they took my fingerprints and all that. They said, you're going to Texas. I said, Texas? Like, that's really far away. And when I arrived to Texas, the place was overcrowded. How many people are there with you? So right now we're 87. And the capacity of this place is 37. It's a lot of people sleeping on the floor. A lot of boats. What's that?

A boat. I know this is a funny word. There is something here. It really looks like a boat and it's plastic and the girls sleep in it on the floor. Maybe another word to describe this place, a big bathroom. We have everything in the place that we sleep in, we eat in. It's open. Everything is open. There is no privacy. Zero privacy, okay. I'm trying to distract myself by maybe writing, reading, talking to you.

I consider it a best time when I talk to you or the family. I like that answer. When all this first started, she kind of chose me to be the family lawyer. So now... You know, I do talk to her almost every single day. She shares stories about life and detention. And in that moment, I have to figure out a way to make her laugh. It's frustrating because...

No one would have ever thought that she would be in there seven months and counting. I had the first court. The charges were only about immigration. So if it's only about immigration, I'm fine. I'm going to be out very soon. The judge ruled that I should be released. And ICE appealed the same day, saying that I'm dangerous. I went for a protest and all that. I was shocked. The second time, the judge ruled immediate release again and again. Eyes appealed the same day.

like a slap on the face because i came to america looking for freedom and freedom of speech freedom of everything you know what i mean to be held here in this place for saying free palestine ceasefire now there was like a kind of a shock to me because that's not the america that i heard of The government had to come up with a reason to keep her in there. Their claim was she was sending money to terrorists or a terrorist organization. The reality was she was sending money to her.

actual family members. And because it's in Palestine, I had to get these declarations from all these family members saying that they're not terrorists. This declaration, for example. is from her brother, and it simply states, like, sometimes I've asked her for money to, you know, cover expenses such as rent, electricity, gas, water. You know, her niece was in the hospital, so he needed money to cover medical bills.

This is for essential needs. Sometimes I don't know whether to laugh or be angry because I know my family and I also know the cot. She's the furthest thing from a threat. Hopefully with your court date coming up here shortly, things will change. Do you know what's going to happen that day? i'm terrified of losing the asylum and i'm fighting for my life here i'm not just waiting for oh i just want to stay in america yeah i mean i can only imagine

I would have done so many things, Hamza. It's seven months. It's seven months. It's a horrible feeling to be here trapped in this place. It feels like it's wasted time here. What is the number one thing you're looking forward to when you do get released? Okay, it's going to be funny for you, but for me it's going to be important. Take a shower. I want to take a shower in private. I want to be in control of the temperature of the world. Amen to that.

There is only less than one minute. Sorry. I know the time limit always keeps kicking us out. So I'll call you later, inshallah. All right. I'll talk to you. I'll talk to you. Bye-bye. Take care. Bye-bye.

That's Laka Kordia and her cousin Hamza Abushabam. This story was produced by Nellie Gillis and edited by Deborah George, Ben Shapiro, and myself. It was mixed by Ben Shapiro. The Rated Diaries team includes Micah Hazel and Lisa Scarce. We're proud members of Radiotopia from PRX, a collection of the best independent podcasts around. You can find them all at radiotopia.fm. We have support from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, NISCA, the Horace Goldsmith Foundation.

I'm Joe Richman. Thanks for listening. Radiotopia.