Latest news with #Kordia
Otago Daily Times
09-07-2025
- General
- Otago Daily Times
Fears fences will cut off Mt Cargill trail
Plans to permanently fence off a Dunedin landmark could destroy access to a "stunning view", an event organiser fears. Temporary fencing has been in place around the Mt Cargill tower since December while upgrades were completed, although it had been expected to be removed in May. Telecommunications company Kordia, which manages the site, said it was considering establishing permanent fencing around the tower to "enhance security and safety". Crush the Cargill organiser Steve Tripp said while the change would hinder trail running events, he was more concerned about the impact on members of the public. Previously, people could walk under the tower, which has barriers around each leg. Since temporary fencing was installed, a makeshift path around the site had appeared. "I've been up there on nice days and there's been a queue at both ends of this little track. People trying to clamber around holding on to the fence and sliding all over the place because they're just not used to that kind of terrain — it's pretty rough and muddy," Dr Tripp said. "It's a really good asset to the city to be able to get up there and have a look at the view and it's been destroyed." When the Otago Daily Times visited the site yesterday, a section of fence next to the path had fallen. If the fencing became permanent, Dr Tripp wanted Kordia or the Dunedin City Council to create a track around the edge of the fence. "Not many cities have such a stunning view so close to the sea ... but it's not very well utilised because of access problems like this." 3 Peaks Mountain Race race director Lydia Pattillo said the impact went beyond trail runners and she had seen tourists and people in wheelchairs struggle to navigate the site. People were scrambling down the "human-made goat-track" or took other, more precarious, routes around the tower, she said. A Kordia spokeswoman said installing permanent fencing to boost security and safety was still in a planning stage "with no firm date set". She welcomed public feedback on the proposal. "We acknowledge the public often access the areas below the tower and we're working with local authorities to ensure the fencing design minimises disruption to recreational activities and public enjoyment," she said. "The Mt Cargill site houses critical broadcasting and communications infrastructure and permanent fencing will help protect both the transmission equipment and the public from potential hazards, such as falling ice that forms on the tower during winter." There was also evidence that members of the public had attempted to illegally climb the tower, which put them at risk of injury or death, and of exposure to harmful radiation, she said.
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Surveilled, detained: Feds pursue Paterson woman a year after Gaza protest
Days after taking office, President Donald Trump declared that he would punish 'leftist, anti-American colleges and universities' and go after 'all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests.' 'We will find you, and we will deport you,' Trump said while announcing an executive order. In the ensuing crackdown on pro-Palestinian activism, Leqaa Kordia of Paterson said she soon found that the Department of Homeland Security was investigating nearly every aspect of her life. They interrogated her mother, uncle, a clothing store owner and tenants of an apartment that she briefly rented. They traced her WhatsApp messaging account and subpoenaed records from MoneyGram. They photographed her mother's home, she said. The scrutiny, described in a federal lawsuit, came nearly a year after her participation at a demonstration on April 30, 2024, outside the gates of Columbia University. New York City police arrested 119 protesters on and off campus that day, including Kordia, a Palestinian who had been in the United States since 2016. Although charges were dropped, the arrest put her on federal authorities' radar, the lawsuit shows. In March, the Department of Homeland Security announced Kordia had been arrested for overstaying her student visa. Kordia's mother had filed a family-based petition for her to become a permanent resident that she mistakenly thought gave her temporary legal status, her attorneys said. Today, she remains in Texas at the Prairieland Detention Facility, 1,500 miles away from her family, held in what her attorneys describe as 'inhumane conditions.' On June 5, she will appear at the U.S. District Court for the District of Northern Texas, where she filed a petition alleging that her detention violates her rights to free speech and due process. Her attorneys will argue a motion for her release. Kordia's case points to a broader and unconstitutional campaign to silence pro-Palestinian advocacy, her attorneys said, with the Trump administration 'weaponizing' immigration law to achieve that goal. 'Immigration authorities targeted and selectively prosecuted her and there is no justification for her continued detention,' said Arthur Ago, at attorney with the South Poverty Law Center, a legal advocacy and civil rights organization representing Kordia. The U.S. government, Ago said, is 'using immigration law as a pretext to target individuals for exercising their freedom of expression.' The Department of Homeland Security wrote in an email that Kordia's student status was terminated for "lack of attendance." They noted, too, that she had been arrested for involvement in what they called 'pro-Hamas protests at Columbia University." They did not address allegations that her detention violated her constitutional rights. The White House reiterated its vow to deport "anti-American radicals" after an Egyptian threw incendiary devices at people gathered at a June 1 demonstration to advocate for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza in Boulder, Colorado. DHS said Mohamed Sabry Soliman entered the country legally with a B-2 tourist visa in August 2022. The visa expired six months later. Soliman applied for asylum in September 2022. Individuals with pending asylum applications are generally protected from deportation while their cases are pending. The attack escalated fears because it occurred soon after a fatal shooting in Washington D.C. on May 21 by suspect Elias Rodriguez, an American citizen who shouted 'Free Palestine' after he killed two members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington outside a Jewish museum. Born in Jerusalem, Kordia grew up in the West Bank with her father. Her parents divorced when she was a child and, in 2016, she traveled to the United States where her mother lived in Paterson. When she went to the protest outside Columbia's gates, Kordia was mourning the loss of more than 100 family members killed by Israeli forces in Gaza. "Ms. Kordia was moved to join this demonstration and others because of the sense of loss she felt, and still feels, from losing an entire generation of her family in Gaza," the petition states. "This helped her begin to mourn for the family she had lost. The demonstration, at least where Ms. Kordia stood, was peaceful and nonviolent. Ms. Kordia joined in the group's chanting 'ceasefire now!' and end the siege on Gaza!' among other slogans." Police arrested Kordia and others as they ordered the crowd to disperse. She was released the next day, and police dropped a disorderly conduct charge, according to the complaint and to news reports. Then, in March, Homeland Security agents visited her mother's home and got on the phone with Kordia, saying they had questions about her immigration status. She made an appointment with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Newark on March 13, where officers informed her she had overstayed her student visa. Kordia had been enrolled in an English language program and withdrew after her mother filed the application for her residency. It was an error she made based on bad advice, her legal team said. In a standard assessment, ICE "rated her as low risk across all risk factors, including risk to public safety, flight risk, and criminal history," according to the complaint. "Immediately after officers processed Ms. Kordia at the Newark Field Office," the complaint states, "three officers placed her in an unmarked vehicle and transported her to an airport. The officers immediately brought her to a gate to wait for a plane." In the average visa overstay case, people are allowed to fight their immigration case from home, especially where there is no criminal history, said SPLC attorney Sabrine Mohamad. 'Among the legal team, we have decades and decades of immigration experience and none of them have ever seen someone put in detention and flown out of the state simply for an overstayed visa,' Mohamed said. At an April 3 bond hearing, Homeland Security lawyers alleged Kordia was a danger because of her protesting and a $1,000 wire transfer she made to her aunt, according to the complaint. It was an errand for her mother, a routine offer of help to a family member abroad, Mohamad said. "The immigration judge found, in connection with the April 30, 2024 arrest, no evidence that Ms. Kordia had threatened police or engaged in any dangerous activity," the complaint states. "Similarly, the immigration judge rejected DHS's baseless suggestion that Ms. Kordia may have provided support to a terrorist group, noting that the government admitted they do not know any information about the recipient of the single transaction attributed to Ms. Kordia." The immigration judge determined Kordia posed no risk and granted her a bond of $20,000. Homeland Security appealed, so she remains in custody. 'They have yet to provide a shred of evidence of illegal activity. That evidence does not exist,' Mohamed said. Under U.S. law, being in the country without legal permission is a civil violation, not a criminal offense. In Kordia's case, Homeland Security included her sealed arrest record from the New York City Police Department as evidence for her removal. City law bars police from sharing information with federal agencies for immigration purposes. Homeland Security officials told police they were investigating Kordia for money laundering, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told reporters. The detention center was overcrowded, so Kordia slept on a concrete floor with a thin mattress and blanket with about 55 women in a room meant for 20, the lawsuit states. Roaches crawled on the floor around them. She remained there for a month. When a bed became available, it was under an industrial air conditioner that blew frigid air. She could not get a bed transfer and asked to be moved back to the concrete floor. Kordia also alleged that she was denied medication for a rash that bled and cough drops for a sore throat. She asked but did not receive medical care for migraine headaches, dizziness and psychological distress, she claimed. A practicing Muslim, Kordia also said she 'has not had a single halal meal' despite repeated requests, even as kosher meals were provided for other detainees, the complaint states. During Ramadan, when Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset, she also could not get meals at appropriate times. In a month, Kordia dropped from 170 to 121 pounds, according to the complaint. In her complaint, Kordia alleged that her treatment violates her religious freedom under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The GEO Group, the private prison corporation that operates the Prairieland Detention Facility, said in an email that it provides 'around-the-clock access to medical care, in-person and virtual legal and family visitation, general and legal library access, dietician-approved meals, religious and specialty diets, recreational amenities, and opportunities to practice their religious beliefs.' Its services, a spokesperson added, are monitored by ICE, organizations within the Department of Homeland Security and accreditation groups 'to ensure strict compliance with ICE detention standards.' Pro-Palestinian protests swept through college campuses and streets across the United States after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and Israel's subsequent military assault. Trump administration officials have alleged that protesters promoted antisemitism and posed national security threats. Student protests have been largely peaceful and included Jewish activists. Organizers say their actions are targeted at the Israeli government, not at Jews. In an array of cases, allegations made against detained students and scholars were not criminal. In at least three cases, they cited a Cold War-era statue allowing the secretary of state to move to deport non-citizens deemed harmful to American foreign policy. The law was cited against Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk , scrutinized for writing a 2024 op-ed in a student newspaper critical of Israel, and Badar Khan Suri, who wrote pro-Palestinian comments on social media that officials claim were pro-Hamas, a charge he and his attorneys say is false. It was levied, too, against Mahmoud Khalil, a spokesperson for Columbia University protesters. They also alleged that Khalil had inaccuracies in his green card application, although he is disputing that claim in federal court in New Jersey. 'This administration is not just denying those who are detained the right to live in dignity,' Mohamad said. 'It's also weaponizing their silence as a warning to the rest of us that if you advocate for Palestine or express any form of dissent you will be disappeared and silenced.' A magistrate judge at the June 5 hearing will rule on whether Kordia should be released in a recommendation that will be provided to the U.S. District Court judge. Kordia is also represented by the Texas Civil Rights Project, Muslim Advocates, the CLEAR project and Waters Kraus Paul & Siegel. Rallies are planned June 5 in Dallas and in Newark outside the Delaney Hall detention center at 11 a.m. to call for Kordia's release. This article originally appeared on Leqaa Kordia of Paterson NJ fights for ICE detention release
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Protesters rally outside Delaney Hall for Palestinian activist from Paterson, others
Supporters of Palestinian activist and Paterson resident Leqaa Kordia joined with immigrant advocates at a solidarity rally outside Delaney Hall in Newark on June 5. On a humid morning outside the ICE detention center, the small group of protesters brought attention to Kordia's situation as well as the plight of detainees held in Delaney Hall. Kordia is currently being held at the Prairieland Detention Center in Texas. In April 2024, Kordia took part in a demonstration against Israel's military excursion into Gaza outside the gates of Columbia University in New York City. She was arrested after that demonstration, but the charges against her were dropped. However, as reported, she was the target of a Homeland Security Department investigation and was arrested by DHS in March. On the same day as the rally for her outside Delaney Hall, Kordia was scheduled to appear in the U.S. District Court for the District of Northern Texas to argue that the detention violated her rights and seek her release. Banan Abdelrahman, a campaign coordinator with the American Service Committee's New Jersey Immigrant Rights Program, read out comments in Arabic and English that she had received from Kordia on the morning of the rally to share with the protesters. 'I write with full certainty that we will all be free from this cruel justice and I believe with all my heart that I will soon meet you as a free woman,' Abdelrahman read from Kordia. Abdelrahman also said Delaney Hall is 'expanding the reach of the terror' in immigrant communities in New Jersey. She pointed out that while the rally was happening, an ambulance entering Delaney Hall was not allowed to enter for 10 minutes, which she said is 'indicative of a system that treats people as inhuman.' Ana Paola Pazmino, executive director of the immigrant rights group Resistencia En Accion, said the rally was important to the people being held inside Delaney Hall as well as their loved ones who are having a hard time getting into the facility to visit those detained. She encouraged people to come out to any protest or gathering outside Delaney Hall to get it closed. 'Make that effort to come out here, make that effort to be part of anything that can dismantle this system,' Pazmino said. Ricardo Kaulessar covers race, immigration, and culture for For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today. Email: kaulessar@ Twitter/X: @ricardokaul This article originally appeared on Protest for Palestinian activist outside ICE center in Newark
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
NYPD investigating release of Palestinian woman's sealed records to ICE
The New York Police Department has opened an investigation into whether it improperly shared some information about a Palestinian woman's arrest with federal immigration authorities in possible violation of departmental policy and the city's sanctuary laws. Speaking with reporters during an unrelated media briefing Tuesday, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch acknowledged the department shared some information with Homeland Security Investigations, but said it was not clear why sealed information was also provided. 'The thing that we are looking at is, as part of that document request, which we handed over, how a summons record associated with a sealed case was also provided,' Tisch said. Leqaa Kordia, a 32-year-old Palestinian resident in New Jersey, was taken into custody by immigration officers on March 13 during a voluntary check-in with immigration officials in Newark. She was then transferred to an immigration detention center in Texas, where she remains in custody, according to court documents. Kordia's arrest came days after federal immigration officers took Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil into custody. Khalil's arrest was the first of a wave of high-profile detentions among students and noncitizens who participated in protests. Little had been known about herKordia's case until this week, after attorneys filed a habeas corpus petition in court challenging the legality of her detention and seeking her release. Following her arrest in March, the Department of Homeland Security issued a news release which appeared to identify her as a Columbia student, but Kordia has never been affiliated with the school and was not enrolled in any school at the time of her arrest, according to court documents and her attorneys. According to court documents filed in Texas, federal officers arrested Kordia nearly a year after she made a day trip to New York City to participate in a protest outside the gates of Columbia University. 'Ms. Kordia was moved to join this demonstration and others because of the sense of loss she felt, and still feels, from losing an entire generation of her family in Gaza. This helped her begin to mourn for the family she had lost,' Kordia's attorneys wrote. While Kordia was at the demonstration, the NYPD ordered protesters to disperse, but before she could leave the area, Kordia was arrested with dozens of other people and released the following day, according to her attorneys and court documents. 'Ms. Kordia was initially given a court date but was later informed that the charges had been dismissed without her ever having to appear in court,' the attorneys wrote. Kordia's attorneys told CNN Tuesday an NYPD-generated report of Kordia's arrest was issued on March 14 – a day after her arrest by immigration officials in Newark. The report was shared with the Department of Homeland Security, which has since included it as evidence in Kordia's immigration proceedings. CNN has obtained a copy of the report, which bears the NYPD seal and a summary of information about Kordia including her home address, date of birth and a brief description of her arrest. The report shows Kordia had no previous criminal record or arrests. The potential information-sharing is now under investigation by the NYPD. The department is prohibited from sharing information or assisting immigration authorities in the enforcement of immigration laws except in certain cases involving certain crimes. News of the investigation was first reported by The Associated Press. 'This is under internal investigation and review,' Tisch said during Tuesday's briefing. Attorney Arthur Ago, director of strategic litigation and advocacy at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is representing Kordia, told CNN he does not know why Kordia became a target for the Department of Homeland Security and whether the NYPD's arrest report ultimately helped immigration officers execute her detention in Newark. 'The facts of this case tell us that she is not a person who is an activist, she's not an organizer of demonstrations or protests,' Ago said. 'She is a very private person who is not a central figure in any of this – that's who she is, so no, we have no idea how she came to the attention of the Department of Homeland Security.' CNN has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment. According to court documents filed by Kordia's attorney, Homeland Security Investigations agents spoke with multiple people related to Kordia as part of an investigation into alleged 'national security violations,' in the days leading up to her arrest. 'They also subpoenaed records from MoneyGram, established a trace on her WhatsApp messaging account, and requested records from NYPD related to the April 2024 demonstration for Palestinian rights,' Kordia's attorneys wrote. 'There is still no evidence that agents found any indication of 'national security violations.' Instead, this in-depth investigation only revealed a single wire transfer from February 2022 in which Ms. Kordia sent $1,000 to a family member still living in Palestine,' reads the court filing. During questioning by reporters on Tuesday, Tisch said the NYPD received a request from Homeland Security Investigations officers in New Jersey seeking information about a money-laundering investigation. 'They were seeking information on this person related to a money laundering investigation, and that is fairly standard for us, and so the information was provided,' Tisch said. Kordia's attorneys said they have not received any indication that money-laundering accusations are part of Kordia's immigration case. 'The Department of Homeland Security has never communicated to us or indicated in court that Ms. Kordia is under investigation for money laundering,' Ago told CNN. 'The allegation comes as a complete surprise, is entirely unfounded, and we categorically deny it. Ms. Kordia has never engaged in money laundering and any insinuation otherwise is false, unsupported by any facts or evidence, and we are prepared to fight this allegation in court.' Kordia has been in detention for months, more than a thousand miles away from her home, facing conditions her attorneys say violate her right to religious freedom and deny her proper accommodations. 'Since being confined, Ms. Kordia, a practicing Muslim, has not had a single halal meal, even though the detention center accommodates the religious dietary needs of other people in custody, including Jewish people who observe a kosher diet,' Kordia's attorneys wrote. 'As a result, Ms. Kordia has experienced significant weight loss.' Following her arrest in Newark, the Department of Homeland Security issued a statement saying Kordia was arrested for overstaying an expired F-1 visa and noted she had been previously arrested for her involvement in 'pro-Hamas protests at Columbia University in New York City.' 'It is a privilege to be granted a visa to live and study in the United States of America,' Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement. 'When you advocate for violence and terrorism that privilege should be revoked, and you should not be in this country.' The Homeland Security statement does not mention that New York City Police dropped those charges against Kordia. Kordia's attorneys contest that accusation in court documents, saying Kordia's visa expired because of 'incorrect advice' that led her to believe she did not need to maintain her status because a separate immigration claim filed by her mother, who also lives in New Jersey, had been approved. Kordia's habeas corpus petition seeks her release from detention, arguing she is being detained in violation of her First and Fifth Amendment rights despite an immigration judge's decision to grant her bail last month. The government swiftly appealed that decision. The federal district court in Texas has not yet set a briefing schedule on the case. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at
San Francisco Chronicle
06-05-2025
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
NYPD launches probe into why it gave a record of a Palestinian woman's sealed arrest to ICE
NEW YORK (AP) — Police in New York City are investigating whether the department violated policy by sharing a report with federal immigration authorities that included internal records of a Palestinian woman's arrest at a protest. The probe follows reporting by The Associated Press on the cooperation between the NYPD and President Donald Trump's administration, which is seeking to deport Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian resident of New Jersey, as part of its widening crackdown on noncitizens who participated in protests against the war in Gaza. The report shared by police with the federal government included Kordia's name, address and birthday, as well as an NYPD officer's two-sentence summary of her arrest for protesting outside Columbia University last spring. That charge — a summons for disorderly conduct — was dismissed and the case sealed, meaning it should not have been accessible for law enforcement purposes, according to legal experts. 'How it is that summons information was provided that is associated with a sealed arrest is what we are looking into now,' the city's police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, said Tuesday in response to the AP's questions. 'This is under internal investigation and review.' Kordia, a 32-year-old waitress living in Paterson, New Jersey, was detained during a March 13 check-in with immigration officials, then sent to an immigration jail in Texas, where she remains. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced her arrest the following day, citing an expired visa and her role in 'pro-Hamas protests.' The four-page NYPD report on Kordia was generated the same day and is now being used as evidence by the federal government in its bid to deport her. 'We still don't know how she became the focus of the Department of Homeland Security,' said Arthur Ago, an attorney for Kordia. 'If they did get information from the NYPD about a sealed citation that was dismissed in the interest of justice, that would be highly disturbing.' Under city law, police are generally prohibited from assisting federal authorities in civil immigration enforcement, though there are exceptions for criminal investigation. Tisch said the department received a request from Homeland Security Investigations, a division of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as part of a criminal investigation into Kordia. 'The member said they were seeking information on this person related to a money laundering investigation, and that is fairly standard for us, so the information was provided,' Tisch said. 'That was all done according to procedure.' Kordia's attorney said he was not aware of any investigation related to money laundering. He said she was born in Jerusalem, grew up in the West Bank and arrived in New Jersey in 2016 to live with her mother, a U.S. citizen. In Kordia's immigration case, the federal government has referenced both her past arrest at Columbia and a $1,000 payment she made to a relative in the West Bank as evidence of potential dangerousness, the attorney said. 'They keep hinting and insinuating some sort of nefarious action by Ms. Kordia in terms of just sending money to family in Palestine,' Ago said. 'There's nothing there. Sending money home to a relative is what immigrants do in this country.' A DHS spokesperson said Kordia was taken into custody for immigration violations but would not say if she was facing criminal investigation. In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for the New York City Council called the police commissioner's lack of explanation 'troubling.'
