Ward Sakeik was detained by immigration officials in February as she returned from honeymooning with her new husband in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
RICHARDSON, Texas — A North Texas woman who was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials as she returned from her honeymoon was released this week after nearly five months in detention and spoke about her experience in a press conference Thursday.
The woman, Ward Sakeik, was initially arrested by immigration officials as she returned from honeymooning in the U.S. Virgin Islands with her new husband, Taahir Shaikh, in February, according to attorney Eric Lee.
Sakeik spoke about her detention in a press conference on Thursday. She said ICE detained her amid the final stages of getting her green card.
“I was put in a gray tracksuit and shackles immediately,” she said. “I was handcuffed for 16 hours without any water or food on the bus.”
“I didn’t even get to say goodbye,” Sakeik added.
Watch the full press conference here:
Sakeik was born in Saudi Arabia to Palestinian parents, but doesn’t have citizenship in either country, leaving her stateless, Shaikh explained during a news conference in June. Sakeik said she’s lived in the U.S. since age 8, when her family came seeking asylum in 2011. Shaikh previously said a judge signed a removal order for Sakeik and her family, but no country accepted them. She was later given legal permission to work in the U.S., he said.
“We have followed all immigration policies and have complied with every single thing — every single document, every single piece of paper, every single thing that was thrown at us,” Sakeik said. “I didn’t choose to be stateless.”
Sakeik went on to attend UT-Arlington and start a wedding photography business.
While in detention, she said her greatest fear was “not coming back into the life that I had built for myself.”
“The humanity that I was taught in middle school, elementary, high school and college growing up is not the humanity I’ve seen,” Sakeik added. “It was the humanity that was stripped away from me.”
After nearly five months, Shaikh picked Sakeik up Tuesday night from Prairieland Detention Center, an ICE facility in Johnson County, and the couple returned to their DFW home, Lee said.
She called her release from detention and reunification with her husband “amazing.”
“I was overfilled with joy and a little shock,” Sakeik said.
Now that she’s released, Sakeik said she hopes to advocate for other women in a similar position.
“I’m glad to be here,” Sakeik said. “I’m blessed, but I also feel for the women that are not out here breathing the same air that I’m breathing.”
Sakeik’s release allegedly came after ICE had attempted to deport her twice in June, according to a statement from Lee.
“Her release was a sign that they didn’t know what they were doing,” said Mustafaa Carroll, Executive Director of DFW’s Council on American Islamic Relations. “The sad part about it is it makes people afraid that shouldn’t be afraid.”
ICE officers brought Sakeik to an airport in the Fort Worth area and told her they were deporting her to the Israeli border on June 12, Lee alleges, but it didn’t happen. Then, on Monday, one day before she was released, officers attempted to deport Sakeik again despite a court order preventing her deportation, Lee alleged in a press statement, but officers wouldn’t say where.
“Had we not intervened, she may very well be in a foreign country right now, separated from her family like so many others illegally deported,” Lee said in a statement.
The Department of Homeland Security claims Sakeik’s detention was justified.
“The arrest of Ward Sakeik was not part of a targeted operation by ICE,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said. “She chose to fly over international waters and outside the U.S. customs zone and was then flagged by CBP trying to [reenter] the continental U.S. She overstayed her visa and has had a final order by an immigration judge for over a decade… Following her American husband and her filing the appropriate legal applications for her to remain in the country and become a legal permanent resident, she was released from ICE custody.”
Maria Kari of Project TAHA, a legal nonprofit also representing Sakeik, called her release “a powerful step forward” for her.
“Today marks a powerful step forward for Ward, who has been released from immigration detention and reunited with her spouse, Taahir, after 141 days,” Maria said in a statement Wednesday. “This is a moment of much needed relief and joy — one that every family deserves. Ward’s case is one of too many that are emblematic of this administration’s cruelty-based immigration enforcement system where daily we are seeing loved ones torn apart.”