Ward Sakeik, a woman of Palestinian descent who was born in Saudi Arabia but had citizenship of no country, was released last week from U.S. immigration and customs enforcement detention after nearly five months.
Sakeik, a 22-year-old wedding photographer, was detained upon return to the United States from a honeymoon trip with her husband, a U.S. citizen, at a Miami airport in February. She lived in North Texas.
She had gone to the U.S. Virgin Islands after her marriage and was in the process of getting a permanent resident status by obtaining a green card. Despite that, she said, immigration officials attempted to deport her to Israel.
According to National Public Radio, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said Sakeik’s detention was not part of a targeted operation by ICE.
She flew over international waters and outside the U.S. Customs zone and was flagged by Customs and Border Patrol while trying to reenter the continental United States, the NPR report quoted the spokesperson.
“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,” the statement said.
“The humanity that I was taught in middle school, elementary, high school and college growing up is not the humanity that I’ve seen,” Sakeik said, sharing her account with the media.
Sakeik arrived in the United States in 2011 on a tourist visa and her family applied for sought asylum.
However, according to the Department of Homeland Security, Sakeik overstayed her visa and had a final order of removal from an immigration judge,
According to her attorney, the family had an agreement with immigration officials in 2015, and was allowed to live in the country under supervision. Sakeik said she always fulfilled terms of the agreement and had a valid work authorization.
She spoke about the overcrowded conditions at El Valle Detention Facility near McAllen and Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, about 40 miles southwest of Dallas.
“I did lose five months of my life because I was criminalized for being stateless,” she said.
“Something that I absolutely have no control over. I didn’t choose to be stateless, I didn’t do a crime that made me stateless. I had no choice.”
