NEW YORK: New York City’s police department provided federal immigration authorities with an internal record about a Palestinian woman who they arrested at a protest, which the Trump administration is now using as evidence in its bid to deport her, according to court documents obtained by The Associated Press.
The report — shared by the NYPD in March — includes a summary of information in the department’s files about Leqaa Kordia, a New Jersey resident who was arrested at a protest outside Columbia University last spring. It lists her home address, date of birth and an officer’s two-sentence account of the arrest.
Its distribution to federal authorities offers a glimpse into behind-the-scenes cooperation between the NYPD and the Trump administration, and raises questions about the city’s compliance with sanctuary laws that prohibit police from assisting with immigration enforcement efforts.
Kordia, 32, was among the earliest people jailed in President Donald Trump’s crackdown on noncitizens who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
She was detained during a voluntary check-in with immigration officials in Newark, New Jersey, on March 13, then flown to an immigration jail in Texas. Her arrest was announced by the US Department of Homeland Security the next day in a statement that cited an expired visa and her role in “pro-Hamas protests.”
It remains unclear how immigration authorities were able to learn about Kordia’s presence at the protest near Columbia last April.
At the demonstration, police cited Kordia with disorderly conduct. But the charge was dismissed weeks later and the case sealed.
City law generally prohibits police from sharing information about arrests with federal immigration officials, although there are exceptions for criminal investigations.
On March 14, an NYPD officer generated a four-page report on Kordia and shared it with Homeland Security Investigations, a division of US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.
In an emailed statement, an NYPD spokesperson said the department “received a request from a federal agency related to a criminal investigation and shared relevant information in accordance with our sanctuary city policies.”
“The NYPD does not participate in programs that are designed for visa revocation or any civil immigration matter,” the statement added.
The department declined to say what the investigation entailed.
Inquiries to the DHS and ICE were not returned.
Legal experts and civil liberties advocates said the document reflected a worrisome level of information-sharing between the city and the federal government, which has conflated criticism of Israel with support for Hamas, a US-designated terror group.
“The intention of the sanctuary laws is to protect against this kind of collusion and pretextual information sharing,” said Meghna Philip, the director of special litigation at the Legal Aid Society.
“It seems to be a clear violation of the law,” Philip added, “and raises questions about what guardrails, if any, the NYPD has around sharing information with a federal government that is seeking to criminalize speech.”
A low-profile protester
Kordia grew up in Jerusalem and the West Bank, and moved to New Jersey in 2016 with her mother, an American citizen. She studied English at a local exchange program, but let her student visa expire because she believed her application for permanent residency was sufficient to remain in the country legally, according to her attorneys.
Kordia’s case stood out among those ensnared by Trump’s crackdown. She was not an outspoken activist and had not publicly criticized Israel, either in social media posts or newspaper op-eds. She maintained no social media presence and did not appear on any of the public lists maintained by pro-Israel groups that seek to identify people who participate in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Her name was not mentioned in news reports about the demonstrations.
While the Trump administration identified her as a Columbia student, she has never been affiliated with the university and was not enrolled in any college when she joined a protest in 2024 outside Columbia. Her attorneys said she was peacefully voicing her dissent against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, which they said has killed over 100 of her relatives.
A spokesperson for the NYPD declined to say when they were first approached by federal authorities or whether the March 14 report was the first time they had shared information about Kordia’s arrest record.
Surveillance and interrogations
Beginning in early March, attorneys for Kordia say federal agents began interrogating members of her family and her neighbors. They also subpoenaed records from her MoneyGram account and “established a trace on her WhatsApp messaging account,” her attorneys said in a court filing.
“The investigation revealed nothing except that Ms. Kordia sent a single payment to a Palestinian family member in 2022, which itself is protected First Amendment” rights, the filing states.
At an April 3rd hearing, the federal government pointed to Kordia’s prior arrest for protesting as a reason she should not be released. An immigration judge found no evidence she had acted violently at the protest and agreed to grant Kordia a $20,000 bond, which her family paid.
The government has appealed that decision, keeping her detained for now.
In a petition seeking her release, attorneys for Kordia, a devout Muslim, said she had been denied halal meals since arriving at the jail. As a result, she has lost 49 pounds (22 kilograms) and fainted in the shower, according to facility records shared with her attorneys.
“The government’s entire argument that Ms. Kordia is a danger to the United States rests on a single summons for her participation in a demonstration,” Arthur Ago, her attorney, said. “The only reason she’s confined right now is because of her political viewpoint.”
Mayoral cooperation
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has criticized the city’s sanctuary protections, while insisting his administration is “meticulously” following the law.
When asked by the AP last month if the NYPD could turn over information to its federal law enforcement partners about a summons issued to a protester, the mayor insisted no such request was ever made.
“We have no record that this happened,” Adams said. “When I inquired, they said we did not turn over anything and we don’t collaborate for civil enforcement. They said that over and over again.”
His office did not respond to inquiries Friday.