By Times Now Digital
Ward Sakeik, a 22-year-old stateless Palestinian woman detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) authorities in February, was released this week after spending more than four months in custody, reports The Guardian. Sakeik, who was picked up while returning from her honeymoon in the US Virgin Islands, spoke publicly Thursday for the first time since her release. 鈥淚 was overfilled with joy and a little shock,鈥 she said at a press conference in Irving, Texas. “I mean, it was my first time seeing a tree in five months,鈥 she said. She described the emotional reunion with her husband, Taahir Shaikh, as she was released. 鈥淚 was like, oh my God, I can touch him without handcuffs and without a glass. It was just freedom,” she said. Sakeik, born in Saudi Arabia to Palestinian parents from Gaza, came to the United States on a tourist visa when she was eight. The family sought asylum, which was denied, but they were allowed to remain in Texas under supervision. Sakeik had complied with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) check-ins since age nine. A college graduate from the University of Texas at Arlington, she started a wedding photography business and recently got married. But just 10 days after her wedding, she was detained on her return flight from the Virgin Islands – a US territory that does not require a passport for travel. 鈥淚 married the love of my life. We spent 36 hours in the house that we were renovating for six months,鈥 she said. 鈥淎fter a few hours from returning from our honeymoon, I was put in a gray tracksuit and shackles,” she said. Sakeik said she was transferred between three detention centres and faced unsanitary conditions, poor treatment. 鈥淭he restrooms are also very, very, very much unhygienic. The beds have rust everywhere. They鈥檙e not properly maintained. And cockroaches, grasshoppers, spiders, you name it, all over the facility. Girls would get bit.鈥 Throughout, Sakeik was preoccupied with the worry that she would be deported. Had she been sent to Israel without documents proving her nationality, she worried she would be arrested. 鈥淚 was criminalised for being stateless, something that I absolutely have no control over,鈥 she said. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 choose to be stateless 鈥 I had no choice,” she said. The Department of Homeland Security has claimed Sakeik was flagged because she “chose to fly over international waters and outside the US customs zone and was then flagged by CBP [Customs and Border Protection] trying to re-enter the continental US”. But the Virgin Islands are a US territory 鈥 and no passport is required to visit there. “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,” said assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin, as quoted by The Guardian. Meanwhile, following her husband鈥檚 sponsorship and the filing of a green card application, she was released. While grateful to be free, Sakeik said she remains committed to advocating for other women still in detention. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e watching this, I love you, and I will continue to fight for you every single day,鈥 she said.