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.
