ICE Detentions, Local Elections, and the Queer Texans Who Refuse to Hide. From The Barbed Wire.

Happy almost Día de los Muertos, y’all. It’s Brian Gaar, senior editor of The Barbed Wire, back with another offering of stories from our truly haunted state.

This week, we’ve got an ICE detention horror story, a reminder that your local ballot matters way more than your presidential bumper sticker, and a Texas-sized dose of queer joy. Let’s light some candles and dive in.

In San Antonio, a Palestinian mother of three named Leqaa Kordia has been stuck in ICE detention for over a year, despite committing no crime. Local activists have spent months protesting her incarceration, calling it what it is: state-sanctioned cruelty dressed up as “policy.” 

Meanwhile, early voting’s underway, and Texans are once again debating whether to show up. But while everyone’s screaming about Trump, it’s your local elections that decide whether your schools get funding, your streets get fixed, and your libraries get defunded by some guy named “Chip.” If democracy dies in darkness, it probably starts in your county clerk’s office.

Not everything’s doom and gloom, though. Houston writer Samantha Chavarría built her first ofrenda to honor her late father, a small altar of candles, marigolds, and memory. For her, and for so many Mexican-American families, Día de los Muertos isn’t just about remembrance. It’s about reclaiming joy, connection, and culture in a year full of grief and fear. 

And finally, despite everything, Texas remains one of the queerest places in the country. Seriously. We have more LGBTQ+ people than all of Canada. From drag queens in Dallas to small-town mayors living quietly and proudly, queer Texans are thriving in a state that keeps trying to legislate them out of existence. Editor Olivia Messer’s essay reminds us that Texas isn’t just red, it’s every color in the damn rainbow.

After 220 Days, Leqaa Kordia Is the Last Columbia Protester in ICE Detention. She’s Still Fighting for Freedom.

While other Palestinian protesters have been released, Leqaa Kordia has languished in Prairieland Detention Center. “I am not forgotten by my people,” she said.

By Sam Judy

Leqaa Kordia, 32, attended her asylum hearing via webcam on Thursday, Oct. 23. The blue light of the monitor displayed multiple windows framing her lawyer, the judge, and the government prosecutor. Her team laid out an argument it had made multiple times already: If Kordia, who is Palestinian, is deported to Israel, she will be placed in the custody of the government that her lawyers say has killed almost 200 members of her family.

She attended the Webex hearing from the crowded women’s wing of Prairieland Detention Center in North Texas, where she’s been detained for over 220 days. Immigration and Customs Enforcement initially arrested her for overstaying a student visa and participating in a pro-Palestine protest at Columbia University. But her continued detention has been the result of additional allegations from the Department of Homeland Security, which has claimed money sent to family members in Gaza as proof of terrorism, and consulting a lawyer as evidence that she’s a flight risk.

Kordia has been granted bond — twice — by an immigration judge who deemed the evidence against her insufficient, and determined that she isn’t a threat to the community or a flight risk. 

Yet, the Trump administration has repeatedly maneuvered to keep her detained.  

Under past presidential administrations, Kordia likely would have been free to carry out her immigration case from the comfort of her home, according to her legal team. That, however, has changed as the Trump administration has used previously extreme measures like overnight transfers and automatic stays to overrule judges and carry out an aggressive anti-immigration agenda.

Ward Sakeik, a fellow stateless Palestinian who became friends with Kordia while they were both held in Prairieland, was detained while returning from her honeymoon. DHS argued that she wasn’t a U.S. citizen and traveled over international waters as grounds for detention, despite an order of supervision allowing her to stay in the U.S. 

Sakeik was detained for five months. 

The treatment of Palestinians and those who have spoken out about the war in Gaza has been particularly stark as President Donald Trump came into office declaring protesters anti-semitic and supporters of terrorists.

Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist and legal U.S. resident who gained prominence as the first person arrested for protesting at Columbia University in 2024, was detained at LaSalle Detention Center in Louisiana for 104 days before his release in June. In September, a judge ordered that he be deported to Syria or Algeria for failing to disclose information on a green card application and for being a security risk; his legal team has continued to fight the decision.

But unlike Sakeik and Kahlil, Kordia is still languishing in detention. 

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