Stateless Palestinian woman detained after honeymoon released from Ice jail | US immigration

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

“I was too full of joy and a little shock,” she said at a press conference on Thursday. “I mean, it was the first time that I saw a tree in five months.”

She ran to her husband, who had come to get her. “I was like, oh my God, I can touch him without handcuffs and without glass. It was just freedom. “

Sakeik, 22, was detained in February on the way back of his honeymoon in the American Virgin Islands. Before her arrest, she had in accordance with the requirements to check with immigration and the application of customs since she was nine years old.

After its detainee, the American government tried – twice – to deport it. The first time, she was told that she was taken to the border of Israel – just as Israel has launched air strikes on Iran. The second time, Sakeik was informed once again that she would be expelled – despite the ordinance of a judge prohibiting his withdrawal from his original state, Texas.

Sakeik’s family is from Gaza, but it was born in Saudi Arabia, which does not give citizenship of birth rights to children of foreigners. She and her family came to the United States with a tourist visa when Sakeik was eight years old and asked for asylum – but was refused. The family was authorized to stay in Texas as long as they have respected the requirements to register with immigration and customs application.

In the years that have passed, Sakeik obtained his graduate of high school and college at the University of Texas in Arlington, launched a wedding photography company and married her husband, Taahir Shaikh, 28. She had started the process of obtaining a green card.

She and her husband had bought a house – and had started the renovation process.

But 10 days after her marriage, on the way back of his honeymoon, Sakeik’s life was turned upside down. “I married the love of my life. We spent 36 hours in the house we renovated for six months, “she said. “After a few hours after the return of our honeymoon, I was put in a gray tracksuit and chains.”

Sakeik was joined by her husband, her lawyers and her community leaders for the press conference, in a hotel in Irving, Texas, where she had previously photographed marriages. “I never thought I would be back in this hotel giving a speech on something extremely personal,” she said.

Sakeik said she had been transferred between three different detention centers and at different times faced painful conditions. During her first transfer, she was on a bus for 16 hours. “We did not have water or food, and we could feel the driver Dining Chick-Fil-A,” she said. “We are asking for water, hit the door for food, and it was just raising the radio and acting as if he was not listening to us.”

Sakeik said she hadn’t eaten because she was fasting for Ramadan. Finally, she said: “I broke my fast next to the toilet in the intake room.”

At the Prairieland detention center, Sakeik said there was so much dust that “women fall sick on the left and right”.

“The toilets are also very, very, very insufficient.

Throughout, Sakeik was concerned about the concern she was expelled. If she had been sent to Israel without documents proving her nationality, she feared that she would be arrested.

“I was criminalized to be stateless, something on which I have absolutely no control,” she said. “I did not choose to be without a state … I had no choice.”

The Ministry of Internal Security said that Sakeik had been reported because it “chose to fly over international waters and outside the American customs area and was then reported by CBP [Customs and Border Protection] Try to enter the American continent ”.

But the virgin islands are an American territory – and no passport is required to visit there.

“The facts are: she is illegally in our country. She has exceeded her visa and had a final order from an immigration judge for more than a decade,” said assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin.

The agency did not answer questions about the reasons why it tried to expel it despite the order of a judge who prohibits his withdrawal. Later, the agency changed its declaration to add: “Following its American husband and its filing of the appropriate legal requests to remain in the country and becomes a legal permanent resident, it was released.”

Sakeik said that she felt “blessed” that she had been released from detention – but also in conflict on all the women she had known during her confinement. They often stayed late to speak, share meals and follow the training videos that the detention center had provided.

“Many of these women have no money for lawyers or media awareness,” she said. “So, if you look at that, I love you and I will continue to fight for you every day.”