(The Center Square) – Texas House Democrats on Friday demanded the release of a Palestinian woman held at a federal detention center that had been attacked by Antifa last year.
The Democrats held a new conference outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Prairieland Detention Facility in Alvarado, a former crime scene where nearly two dozen Antifa members attacked law enforcement last July 4. Dressed in tactical gear, using explosives and weapons, their stated plan was to shoot and kill ICE officers. Instead, they shot and killed two illegal foreign nationals in custody and shot an Alvarado police officer who was the first to respond to the scene. One of the assailants fled, a manhunt ensued for two weeks and he was caught, The Center Square reported.
Overall, 16 were charged for their alleged role in the planned ambush with an intent to kill ICE officers. Nine were the first to be indicted on terrorism-related charges in the country for the attack, The Center Square reported. Seven were charged with rioting, using weapons and explosives, providing material support to terrorists, obstruction, and attempted murder of an Alvarado police officer and unarmed correctional officers.
Nearby, an ICE Dallas Field Office was targeted by a bomb threat last August, a sniper last September, and two ICE field offices received envelopes with white powdery substances last November, The Center Square reported.
Texas Democrats didn’t condemn these attacks but instead demanded the release of a Palestinian national, Leqaa Kordia, who was arrested and transferred to the Prairieland facility 10 months ago. She has sued and is fighting her detention in an ongoing legal case.
“What is happening to Leqaa should shake every Texan to their core, no matter their politics,” state Rep. Salman Bhojani, a Democrat from north Texas, said. He is one of the first Muslims and Pakistanis elected to the state Legislature. “This is the government sending a chilling message: speak out, protest, challenge power – and you can be punished for it. That is not who we are, and it is not what the Constitution guarantees.”
Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, said, “The federal government cannot lock someone up because they don’t like what she said at a protest. For absolutely no legal reason, the Trump administration has detained Leqaa.”
Kordia was arrested last March by Homeland Security Investigations for allegedly overstaying her expired visa, which had terminated on Jan. 26, 2022. She was also arrested in 2024 for her involvement in anti-Israel riots at Columbia, DHS said at the time. Visa overstays are a deportable offense.
Wu maintains that Kordia was exercising First Amendment rights. He didn’t address the organized and well-funded college campus riots that began nationwide after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel and hostage taking, including of Americans. The riots led to widespread violence against Jewish students, including at Columbia University. In one violent altercation, a Jewish student was stabbed in the eye, allegedly by a Palestinian student, The Center Square reported. Pro-Hamas rioters took over college campuses, classes were shut down, Jewish students were encouraged to stay home at Columbia and other Ivy League schools. The majority of Jewish students in the U.S. said they didn’t feel safe on campus, The Center Square reported.
Congressional hearings were held, prompting the firing of several Ivy League presidents, including Columbia’s. The Trump administration withheld $400 million in federal education funds resulting in Columbia officials eventually changing their policies to stop targeted violence of Jews on campus, The Center Square reported.
Bhojani said Kordia’s detention raised “serious concerns about civil rights and religious freedom” and “Texans must demand accountability, transparency, and immediate action to protect our constitutional rights.”
He did not address the civil rights or religious freedom of Jews targeted by Columbia rioters expressing support for Hamas and calling for the death of Jews.
The Texas Democrats also didn’t condemn violence against ICE officers. Assaults against ICE officers are up 1,300%, vehicular attacks are up 3,200% and death threats are up 8,000% over the last year, The Center Square reported.
Unlike Columbia, no college violence occurred in Texas. Gov. Greg Abbott had directed law enforcement to crack down on riots and instructed higher education institutions to enforce campus shutdown bans and antisemitism policies or face funding cuts. They complied.
The Texas Senate also nearly unanimously passed a bill to ban visa holders who support “terrorist activity at public institutions of higher education” from attending or working at Texas universities, The Center Square reported. The bill went nowhere in the Texas House, which was poised for a shutdown by House Democrats, led by Wu, in protest of a Congressional redistricting bill that eventually passed and became law.
Because of Friday’s press conference, the facility cancelled scheduled visitations with detainees, including a family member of Kordia’s who’d flown in from Florida. “When protesters and agitators gather at the entrance to detention centers, they disrupt scheduled family and legal visits, impacting the ability of loved ones and legal representatives to meet with detained aliens,” an ICE spokesperson said.
