Ward Sakeik, a 22-year-old Palestinian-American who recently graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington, was detained when she flew into Miami from the U.S. Virgin Islands. Over the last five months, she has been moved between immigration detention centers. Last week, ICE notified Sakeik’s legal counsel that she would soon be deported, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-DFW) said.
Sakeik’s whereabouts were unknown last Thursday when CAIR hosted an emergency press conference to bring attention to her case. Her husband, 28-year-old Taahir Shaikh, said he had been unable to speak with Sakeik for two days. A statement provided to the Observer from Crockett said Sakeik is being held at a detention center in Alvarado, Texas.
“My office is fully aware of the situation involving Mrs. Ward Sakeik and her current detainment at the Prairieland Detention Center,” Crockett said. “We have been in direct contact with her family and continue to engage with the appropriate federal agencies as we work toward a just and humane resolution.”
The petition urges Crockett to denounce Sakeik’s detainment and to seek a temporary restraining order on the deportation order to allow her case to be reviewed. Crockett has been an outspoken critic of the immigration policies of President Donald Trump's administration, which she described as “cruel and unnecessary.”
She told the Observer she is “committed” to advocating for Sakeik and others affected by Trump’s mass immigration mandate.
“The continued use of government authority to target and separate families is not only unjust, it is deeply disturbing,” Crockett said. “This administration’s willingness to weaponize immigration enforcement to instill fear and cause harm to our communities is unacceptable, and we will not stand by silently.”
While Trump has called for a ramp-up in deportations, it isn’t clear where Sakeik would be deported. She has lived in the United States since she was 8 years old, and though she was born in Saudi Arabia to refugee parents of Palestinian descent, she does not have citizenship in either country.
According to CAIR, Sakeik’s husband, Shaikh, is a U.S. citizen, and she has a pending green card application. Shaikh told reporters last week that Sakeik has attended every immigration “check-in” appointment she’s been required to.
"It's just simply inhumane and shameful that a person who has followed every rule laid out by our government should be deported, especially a bride separated from her husband for simply taking a honeymoon," CAIR-DFW Executive Director Mustafaa Carroll told reporters. "This is the only country she’s known; she has not been raised in any other country."
While the detainment of some Palestinian and Palestinian-American activists by immigration officials has raised concerns of targeting, Shaikh said his wife has not been publicly involved in the issue. In March, ICE agents detained Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian woman involved in student protests at Columbia University in New York, who was transported to Prairieland Detention Center, where she remains along with Sakeik.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainee portal shows Sakeik is still being held at Prairieland as of Tuesday afternoon.
ICE detainee portal
CAIR-DFW could not be reached for comment on any updates in Sakeik’s case.
"Why do I deserve to keep going on with my life when I see what my wife is going through for 120 days," Shaikh said."[Now she's] boarding a plane to who knows where after this country showed her every aspect of the American dream."
