Stateless Palestinian woman detained after honeymoon release from ice prison | US Immigration

Ward Sakeik, a stateless Palestinian woman, was detained on her way from her honeymoon custody in February and was released from immigration detention after more than four months of detention.

“I’m filled with joy and shock,” she said in a news conference Thursday. “I mean, this is the first time I’ve seen a tree in five months.”

She ran to her husband, who came to pick her up. “I’m like, oh my god, I can touch him without handcuffs and without glasses. That’s just freedom.”

Sakeik, 22, was detained on his way home from a honeymoon in the U.S. Virgin Islands in February. Before her arrest, she had complied with immigration and customs enforcement requirements since she was 9 years old.

After she was detained, the U.S. government expelled her twice. She was told for the first time she was taken to the Israeli border – just like Israel launches air strikes in Iran. The second time, Sakeik was once again told she would be deported – despite the judge’s order unless she was removed from office. Texas.

Sakeik’s family is from Gaza, but she was born in Saudi ArabiaThis will not grant foreigners the right to birth citizenship. She and her family came to the United States on a tourist visa when Sakeik was eight and applied for asylum, but were denied. The family can be allowed to stay in Texas as long as they meet immigration and customs enforcement requirements.

Over the past few years, Sakeik graduated from high school and college at the University of Texas at Arlington and started a wedding photography business and married her husband, Taahir Shaikh, 28. She has begun the process of obtaining a green card.

She and her husband bought a house – and began renovating the house.

But 10 days after the wedding, Shakek’s life was overturned on his way back from his honeymoon. “I married my life’s love. We spent 36 hours in the house and we were renovating six months,” she said. “A few hours after returning from my honeymoon, I was placed in grey sportswear and ties.”

Her husband, her lawyer and community leaders joined Zofan. Press ConferenceAt a hotel in Irving, Texas, she had filmed weddings before. “I never thought I would come back to this hotel and give a speech about it incredibly personal terms,” she said.

Sakeik said she was transferred between three different detention centers, facing painful conditions everywhere. During her first transfer, she spent 16 hours on the bus. “We didn’t get any water or food, we could smell the driver eating Chick-fil-A,” she said. “We would ask for water, knock on the food on the door, and he just turned on the radio, just like he didn’t listen to us.”

Sakeik said she didn’t eat because she fasted Ramadan. Finally, she said, “I broke the fast next to the toilet in the air inlet.”

At the prairie detention center, Sakeik said there was too much dust and “women got sick from left to right”.

“The bathroom is also very, very unhygienic. The beds are rusty everywhere. They are not properly maintained. Cockroaches, grasshoppers, spiders, spiders, you name it, facilities everywhere. Girls will bite.”

Throughout the process, Sakeik was fully focused on fearing that she would be deported. If she did not prove her nationality and did not prove her nationality, she would be arrested, and she was worried that she would be arrested.

“I was criminalized for statelessness, which is absolutely uncontrollable,” she said. “I have no choice but to have stateless…I have no choice.”

DHS claims Sakeik was tagged because she “opted to fly beyond international waters and U.S. Customs Districts and then tagged by CBP [Customs and Border Protection] Trying to re-enter the United States.”

But the Virgin Islands are U.S. territory – no passport is required to visit.

“The fact is: she is illegal in our country. She has exceeded her visa and was finalized by an immigration judge for more than a decade,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.

The agency did not answer orders about why the judge ordered the removal of office, but still did not answer questions about why she was attempted to deport her. Later, the agency revised its statement, adding: “Follow her American husband and she made an appropriate legal application to keep her in the country and become a legal permanent resident, she was released.”

Shakek said she felt “happy” when she was detained and released, but all the women she met during lockdown were also conflicted. They often stay up late to talk, share meals, and follow along with exercise videos provided by the detention center.

“Many of these women don’t have money to promote for lawyers or media,” she said. “So if you’re watching this, I love you, I’m going to continue fighting for you every day.”