Palestinian woman abducted by ICE on her honeymoon finally released

Irving, Texas - Ward Sakeik has finally been released after getting abducted by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement on her way home from her honeymoon and spending more than four months in detention.

Ward Sakeik has finally been released from ICE detention after being abducted by ICE agents on her way home from her honeymoon in February.
Ward Sakeik has finally been released from ICE detention after being abducted by ICE agents on her way home from her honeymoon in February.  © Collage: Screenshot/Instagram/@justiceforwardsakeik & Screenshot/Instagram/@ward_sakeik

Having lived in the US since she was eight years old, Ward Sakeik was taken into ICE custody in February while on her way home from her honeymoon in the US Virgin Islands.

A stateless Palestinian woman, she had complied with all requirements to check in with ICE since she was nine after applying for asylum.

Sakeik was told several times during her ICE detention that the US was going to deport her, despite a court order barring her removal from Texas.

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Sakeik was transported between a number of detention centers and was often subjected to shocking conditions, including a 16-hour bus ride in which she was provided no food or water, she said.

"The restrooms are also very, very, very much unhygienic," she recalled, as reported by The Guardian. "The beds have rust everywhere. They’re not properly maintained. And cockroaches, grasshoppers, spiders, you name it, all over the facility. Girls would get bit."

"The humanity that I was taught in middle school, elementary, and college growing up is not the humanity I have seen," Sakeik said during a press conference after her release. "It was the humanity that was stripped away from me."

"I have been a law-abiding resident of the United States since I was eight-years-old," she continued. "I went to college, I run a successful wedding photography business here... and I recently married."

"My family did come here in 2011 seeking asylum, and 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. I am also in the final stages of getting my green card."

"I did lose five months of my life because I was criminalized for being stateless, something that I absolutely have no control over," Sakeik said of her detention. "I didn't choose to be stateless – I had no choice."

Cover photo: Collage: Screenshot/Instagram/@justiceforwardsakeik & Screenshot/Instagram/@ward_sakeik

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