New York police are investigating why officers gave authorities sealed records of a New Jersey woman who was detained in protest last year.
New York State Law and Department policies cannot release sealing records of arrest or summoning. However, police handed over the documents to Department of Homeland Security agents who demanded them as part of what investigators said was a criminal investigation, Commissioner Jessica Tish and the female attorney said Tuesday.
The documents said it has since become part of a government incident to deport a 32-year-old Palestinian woman.
The incident, first reported by the Associated Press, surfaced as the Trump administration pressured Mayor Eric Adams to cooperate with its deportation campaign. Commissioner Tish has repeatedly stated that New York's Sanctuary Law prohibits banning cooperating with federal officials in immigration cases that are deemed a civil violation.
Cordia, who does not have a valid visa, was arrested during the protest in April 2024. At that time, they gathered at Columbia University to protest the war in Gaza.
On Tuesday, Commissioner Tish said at a city hall news conference that New Jersey Homeland Security Investigation officials asked for information about Cordia and said she was being investigated in connection with money laundering.
Cordia's lawyer later said the commissioner's statement was the first he or his client to hear such an investigation.
Commissioner Tish said the city's sanctuary law prohibits immigration authorities from assisting in deportation cases, but criminal investigations are another matter. The police department handed over the information that “all this was done according to the procedures,” she said.
“That's definitely an example of how we share information,” she said, adding that department officials will also look into how records of subpoena, which are part of the sealed case, were also provided.
Before Arthur, a lawyer at the Southern Poverty Law Center, representing Ms. Cordia, said she was born in Jerusalem and grew up in the West Bank. She went to the Colombian protest to lament her relatives who were killed during the war in Gaza, he said.
At last year's protest, Cordia was given a summon for disorderly conduct, Ago said. The case was dismissed soon, he said, and she was not charged with any other offences.
After her arrest, Cordia returned to New Jersey where she was about to start a business selling candles and small gifts. It was unclear when immigration authorities began filing lawsuits against her.
On March 13, New Jersey immigration and customs enforcement agents arrested Cordia. She was placed on a plane and sent to the Prairiland Detention Facility in Alvarado, Texas, where she is fighting deportation, Ago said.
The next day, an officer working at the police station's real-time crime centre, a hub that provides data to detectives, gave him a four-page report sealed in homeland security. According to the report, Cordia was standing with about 100 other protesters, blocking the gates on campus.
Ago said he learned that when he reviewed Cordia's immigration lawsuit file, he had reported that federal officials had reported on the client's protest arrest. Ago said Cordia had not posted anything on social media and that her arrest had not been made public, he said, raising questions about how federal officials learned about her.
In a statement, Ago said the Department of Homeland Security “has never communicated with us or has never shown in court that Cordia is currently investigating for money laundering.”
“The allegations are a complete surprise and completely unfounded, and we are adamant that,” Ago said. “We are ready to fight this allegation in court.”
Ago said federal officials submitted documents in immigration court describing Kordia as “low risk of danger and low risk of flight.” However, during the lawsuit, federal lawyers described her as dangerous, but they did not provide details, Ago said.
Homeland Security and ICE officials did not respond to repeated requests for comments Tuesday.
The case suggests that the Trump administration is using the pretext of criminal investigations to accelerate deportation, Peter L. Marcowitz, an immigration law professor at the Cardozo School of Law, said he helped draft the city's sanctuary law.
He said it would be appropriate for police departments to share information with federal authorities about criminal investigations not related to immigration enforcement. However, he said the Trump administration's actions mean that demands cannot be taken at face value.
“Given the Trump administration's record of fast and loose play with facts to skirt legal constraints, police departments are required to do more in the future to ensure they are not illegally entangled with Trump's deportation program,” Marcowitz said.
The administration has actively pursued those who participated in the Gaza protests on campus.
Cordia arrived in the US on a tourist visa in 2016, Ago said, but began taking classes to improve his English and was given a student visa within a year.
Soon afterwards, Cordia's mother, a naturalized US citizen, petitioned for an I-130 visa. This is a document that establishes that Cordia is her daughter and opens the way towards citizenship.
However, in 2022, Ago said that Cordia received bad advice from school staff who told her she could drop a student visa after receiving a notification that her I-130 application was approved.
The move left her without a valid visa, Ago said. Based on that basis, he said the immigration officer moved to deport her.
In March, Department of Homeland Security officials knocked on the front door of Cordia's house in New Jersey, Ago said. They spoke to her mother. The mother immediately called Cordia at work, Ago said.
Cordia spoke on the phone with an official who told her to come to their office the following week. They didn't say what they wanted, but Ms. Cordia called the lawyer who agreed to come with her, Ago said.
When Cordia appeared in the office on March 13, officials told her lawyer to sit in the hallway while talking to her. Soon after that, they told their lawyers that Cordia was in custody.
Mya Coleman Reports of contributions.
