Content warning: article contains descriptions of abuse and torture of adults and minors in the women’s section of a concentration camp

Leqaa Kordia spent a year in Prairieland Detention Center in Texas, for the “crime” of attending a protest against the genocide in Gaza. As we were putting together the newsletter this week, the news broke that she had been released on bond, after the third time a judge had ordered ICE to do so.

In the piece linked in the headline, published shortly before her release, Kordia recounts her own experiences and observations in Prairieland. What she reports is truly nightmarish. Being pregnant or getting a period in ICE detention can be deadly. Detainees would rather remain sick than seek the “healthcare” the facility provides. Kordia reports that she “spent 72 hours chained like an animal in a hospital after experiencing the first seizure of my life.”

A summary like this cannot convey the full story. If you can, read Kordia’s whole account. As Kordia says, “The longer they hold me, the more I am reminded how important my story is. Our voices must matter. Why else would they be so afraid of what we have to say?”

(Taken from an email sent to me by Never Again Action. Emphasis original.)