NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City police department has provided federal immigration authorities with internal records of Palestinian women arrested in protest.
A report shared by the NYPD in March includes an overview of information about Leqaa Kordia, a New Jersey resident who was arrested in the country. Protests outside of Columbia University Last spring. It lists her home address, date of birth and two sentence descriptions of the officers of the arrest.
Its distribution to federal authorities offers a glimpse into behind-the-scenes cooperation between the NYPD and the Trump administration, raising questions about city compliance Sanctuary Law It prohibits police from supporting immigration enforcement efforts.
Cordia, 32, was one of the earliest people to be imprisoned in crackdowns against non-citizens who attended pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
She was detained on March 13th for voluntary check-in with an immigration officer in Newark, New Jersey, and then flew to an immigration prison in Texas. Her arrest was announced the following day by the US Department of Homeland Security. statement It cited her role in the expired visa and “Prohama protest.”
It remains unclear how immigration authorities could learn about Cordia’s existence at a protest near Colombia last April. At the demonstration, police cited Cordia in disorderly conduct. However, the fee was dismissed a few weeks later and the lawsuit was sealed.
What NYPD shared with ICE
City law generally prohibits police from sharing information about arrests with federal immigration officials, with exceptions to criminal investigations.
On March 14, NYPD officials generated a four-page report on Cordia, shared with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Department Homeland Security Survey.
A NYPD spokesperson said in an emailed statement that the department “received requests from federal agencies related to the criminal investigation and shared relevant information in accordance with Sanctuary City policies.”
“The NYPD is not participating in programs designed for Visa cancellations or civil immigration,” the statement added.
The department refused to say anything that comes with the investigation.
No inquiries to DHS and ICE were returned.
Legal experts and civil liberty advocates said the document reflects a worrying level of information sharing between the city and the federal government.
“The intent of Sanctuary Law is to protect against this type of collusion and pretext sharing,” said Megna Philip, director of special litigation at the Legal Aid Association.
“That seems like a clear violation of the law,” Philip added. “And I’m urging questions about what guardrails have about the NYPD sharing information with the federal government that is trying to criminalize its speech.”
A modest protester
Cordia grew up in Jerusalem and the West Bank, and in 2016 he moved to New Jersey with his mother, an American citizen. She studied English through a local exchange program, but her student visa expired because she believed her application for permanent residency was sufficient to legally remain in the country.
The Cordia incident stood out among those who were led to Trump crackdowns. She was not an outspoken activist and did not publicly criticize Israel in her social media posts and in her newspaper Op-Eds. She did not maintain her social media presence and did not appear on any of the public lists maintained by pro-Israel groups seeking to identify those participating in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Her name was not mentioned in news reports about the demonstration.
The Trump administration has identified her as a Columbian student, but she has never partnered with a university and was not registered with any university when she joined the protest in the suburbs of Columbia in 2024. Her lawyer said she was peacefully voicing her opposition to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
A NYPD spokesman declined to say when he was first approached by federal authorities or whether the March 14 report was the first time he had shared information about Cordia’s arrest records.
Monitoring and interrogation
Starting in early March, Cordia’s lawyers say federal agents began questioning her family and members of her neighbors. They also summoned records from her MoneyGram account and “established traces in her WhatsApp messaging account,” her lawyer said in a court filing.
“The investigation revealed nothing except that in 2022, Cordia sent a single payment to Palestinian families.
At the April 3 hearing, the federal government pointed to Cordia’s previous arrest after protesting as a reason why she should not be released. The immigration judge could not find evidence of her acting violently in the protest and agreed to grant Cordia the $20,000 bonds paid by her family.
The government has appealed the decision and has continued to detain her for now.
In a petition seeking her release, the lawyer for the devout Muslim Kordia said she was denied a halal meal after she arrived at prison. As a result, she lost 49 pounds (22 kilograms) and was swooped in the shower, according to facility records shared with her lawyer.
“The government’s overall debate about Mr. Cordia being dangerous to the United States falls under a single subpoena to participate in the demonstrations,” her lawyer said. “The only reason she’s locked up now is because of her political perspective.”
Mayor’s cooperation
New York Mayor Eric Adams He criticised the city’s sanctuary protection, but claimed that his administration was meticulous in obeying them.
When asked by the Associated Press last month whether the NYPD could take over information about summons issued to protesters, the mayor emphasized that he could only do so in the event of a criminal investigation.
“We are not permitted to cooperate for civil enforcement,” Adams said.
“There is no record of this happening,” Addams added at the time.
On Friday, the mayor’s office revealed that Adams had mentioned another case of non-citizens who had immigration authorities sought after he was arrested by the NYPD in protest.
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