Ward Sakeik, a 22-year-old who recently married a U.S. citizen, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in February after returning from her honeymoon, and her husband fears she may soon be deported.
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ICE detained Sakeik in February as she and her husband, Taahir Shaikh, returned from their honeymoon to the U.S. Virgin Islands. The couple got married in January.
Shaikh told reporters that his wife may be deported to an unknown location soon. The ICE detainee database showed that as of Friday, she was still being held at the El Valle Detention Facility in Raymondville, Texas.
However, a spokesperson for the Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) told Newsweek that she was being detained in the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas.
Sakeik, who is of Palestinian descent, was born in Saudi Arabia but holds no citizenship there. Her husband said she was unable to obtain Saudi citizenship.
“She’s stateless, she doesn’t hold citizenship in any part of this world,” he told WFAA.
Sakeik first came to the United States when she was 8 years old. Her husband said her family applied for asylum but a judge signed a removal order. She was later given legal permission to work in the country, he said.
She was in the process of obtaining her green card and had attended all the mandatory immigration appointments, with one slated for July prior to her detention, her husband said.
In December 2023, Sakeik graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington, where she obtained a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism, her LinkedIn page said. She has been working as a wedding photographer for more than five years.
On Thursday, the North Texas chapter of CAIR held a news conference on the matter, saying in a media advisory, “Despite a pending green-card application, a lawful marriage to a U.S. citizen, and a spotless compliance record for the past 15 years, ICE has notified Sakeik’s legal counsel that Sakeik could be removed as early as tonight—but will not disclose the destination country. Sakeik’s husband fears she could be sent to a country that she has no birth or national ties to, after being given a life to live here for 15 years.”
Woman detained on honeymoon faces deportation despite being stateless
Ward Sakeik has been detained for four months and now faces deportation to an unknown location, her husband says.
A Danish green card holder and father of four was denied bail after being detained by ICE during what was supposed to be his final citizenship interview in Tennessee.
Kasper Eriksen, 32, came to the U.S. in 2009 as a student and later married his high school sweetheart, Savannah, with whom he settled in rural Mississippi, according to the Daily Beast.
After receiving his green card in 2013, he began the naturalization process, but unknowingly missed a key immigration filing deadline in 2015—around the same time the couple suffered the stillbirth of their first child.
On April 15, 2025, Eriksen was detained in Memphis, Tennessee, without warning by ICE agents during his scheduled naturalization interview. He was later transferred to the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena.
“Kasper was detained for a paperwork miscommunication from 2015, and I was sent home with no explanation and no idea where my husband had been transported,” Kasper’s wife said. “I was 22 weeks pregnant at the time, and as I drove the 3-hour journey back to Sturgis, Mississippi, to say I couldn’t control my emotions would be an understatement.”
ICE claims his failure to submit Form I-751 to remove conditions on his green card a decade ago voided his path to citizenship. At a court hearing on May 28, an immigration judge agreed to reopen Eriksen’s case but denied him bond, meaning he must remain in detention.
If he failed to file an I-751 (Removal of Conditions) 2015, that means his original 2013 green card was a conditional two-year green card. He is not presently a green card holder.
I hope they get this worked out, but it does appear that he has been here illegally for the past ten years.
And he’s a MAGA supporter? 😀 As the old commercial goes, “You asked for it! You got it! Toyota!” It looks like you’ll just have to experience what you wished on others.
MAGA Green Card Holder Detained by ICE at Final Citizenship Interview Denied Bail
ICE detained a Danish MAGA supporter at his citizenship interview over a paperwork error, and a judge has now denied him bail despite no criminal record and four U.S.-born children.
Are we now ruled by dictatorial edict? Only Congress can pass laws; the President gets to sign them only after both houses of Congress have passed them. Der Führer seems to think he can skip a few steps.
Trump signs order seeking to overhaul US elections, including requiring proof of citizenship
President Donald Trump has signed a sweeping executive action to overhaul elections in the United States.
