A newlywed Texas woman spoke publicly for the first time Thursday after she was detained by ICE for five months while returning from her honeymoon.
Ward Sakeik, a 22-year-old stateless Palestinian woman who has lived in the United States since she was 8 years old, was detained by ICE in February after boarding a flight to return home from the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Taahir Shaikh, Sakeik’s husband, told NBC 5 his wife was taken into custody and detained in Miami despite a pending green card application and proof of a unique circumstance.
ICE said they took Sakeik into custody because she had overstayed her visa and was in the country illegally and that they had a final deportation order signed by a judge more than a decade before.
The couple said that while detained in North Texas, ICE attempted to deport her to the border of Israel on June 12, but an emergency order from a federal court blocked her removal. On June 30, ICE attempted to deport her again and her attorney said agents ignored her claims about the federal order and said she was ranting. A legal intervention eventually halted the second deportation attempt, the family said.
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On Monday, Sakeik was released from the Alvarado detention facility and reunited with her husband.
“Humanity taught in middle school, high school, in college growing up, is not the humanity that I’ve seen,” Sakeik said of her time in an ICE holding facility. “I have been a law-abiding citizen since I was 8.”
Sakeik told part of her story Thursday, sharing that when she was taken into custody, she was handcuffed for 16 hours, moved like cattle and not provided food or water. She also said that at times during her 140 days at a holding facility, she’d been denied phone calls to her husband and lawyers and given little warning about attempts to deport her.
Because Sakeik is stateless, a legal claim that a person lacks legal nationality in any country and doesn’t have a country to call home, there was a question of where she would be deported.
“She’s considered stateless, which essentially just means you’re born in a country that doesn’t give you birthright citizenship. And since she was a Palestinian refugee that was born in Saudi Arabia, they weren’t recognized as Saudi nationals,” her husband said.
Shaikh said Sakeik was 8 when her family came to the U.S. legally on a visa. Their asylum application was denied, but without citizenship in any other country, the U.S. couldn’t deport them. Instead, they were given a supervision order and told to check in with ICE every year.
Shaikh said Sakeik and her family met with ICE annually and that agents they dealt with commented on how fast she’d grown up, congratulated her for graduating magna cum laude and congratulated her sister on her marriage. He noted that it was the same agency that showed her humanity and allowed her to be in the country that was now trying to take that from her.
“This country has provided me with everything that I needed. I call it my home. I do not blame the country, I do not blame the people in this country … it’s unfortunate that I am in this situation, especially when I have abided and complied with every single thing that was given to me,” Sakeik said.
Sakeik said she knows firsthand what detained women are being deprived of and didn’t want to lose touch with those she met over the last five months. Her husband said they will continue fighting on behalf of those still in custody.
“The past 140 days of dehumanization, I’m not going to feel that this is a favor that they’ve released her. It is not a favor. The favor was when she came to this country and they gave her the liberty to stay and be a contributor and a model citizen to society … and she honored that favor in her work. She’s a magna cum laude grad, she has a wedding photography business, she has a home in Arlington, Texas, with her name on it. So this is not a favor and the battle will continue,” Shaikh said.
When given the opportunity today to respond to a statement provided to NBC 5 by DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin in June stating:
“The arrest of Ward Sakeik was not part of a targeted operation by ICE. She chose to leave the country and was then flagged by CBP trying to renter the U.S.The facts are she is in our country illegally. She overstayed her visa and has had a final order by an immigration judge for over a decade. President Trump and Secretary Noem are committed to restoring integrity to the visa program and ensuring it is not abused to allow aliens a permanent one-way ticket to remain in the U.S.She had a final order of removal since 2011. Her appeal of the final order was dismissed by the Board of Immigration Appeals on February 12, 2014. She has exhausted her due process rights and all of her claims for relief have been denied by the courts.”
Sakeik scoffed at the government official’s assertions responding, “As an 8-year-old, how did I know I was overstaying a visa, please? I had the employment authorization identification. I did comply.”
While the U.S. government claims she long-ago exhausted legal avenues to remain in the country, her legal team argues she has not.
Attorneys Eric Lee and Chris Godshall-Bennett say not only is she protected from deportation because she married a U.S. citizen, she enjoys protection because of where she was born.
“Yes, that is correct. It did result in a final order of removal,” said Godshall-Bennett. “However, the law allows for changed circumstances and that includes marriage that allows you to adjust status and legalize you status.”
An order of removal has not been carried out, they say, because the family is Palestinian and from Saudi Arabia, which does not grant birthright citizenship.
“There’s nowhere to send them to,” said Godshall-Bennett after the press conference. “You have to have an agreement with that country to accept them.”
Lee stated Sakeik is indeed in the U.S. with the government’s permission called ‘active supervision order.’
He also explains that Sakeik was never granted the legal right to present a case of credible fear, which would be vital since ICE has tried twice to send her to the war-ravaged “Israeli border.”
The legal team also shared frustration saying deportation efforts were almost carried out, despite Sakeik receiving an ‘I-130 approval’ on June 27, which is the first step in the approval process to receive legal permanent status in the U.S. [a Green Card.]
“She has a motion to re-open pending before the Board of Immigration Appeals where she is eligible for a Green Card that is the legal process which is presently playing out,” said Lee. “There’s no reason legally for the Administration trying to deport her in the middle of the night over a court order when she has that application pending.”
Hoping she will be able to stay in the country she still considers her home, Sakeik also vows to advocate for the women still in ICE detention.
She showed off artwork she says they created together during her detention, illustrating flags from their home countries.
Asked how she feels about the U.S. on the heels of Independence Day and after what she endured in custody, Sakeik wants to make it clear.
“I do not blame the country whatsoever. I do not blame the people in this country,” she said. “It’s just unfortunate that I’m in this situation that I am in, especially when I have abided with every single thing that has been given to me.”
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