Newlywed Palestinian woman released from ICE custody after months in detention
Ward Sakeik -- a stateless Palestinian woman who was detained on her way back from her honeymoon -- has been released from ICE detention nearly five months after her arrest, her husband confirmed to ABC News.
Sakeik, whose husband is a U.S. citizen, was arrested at the St. Thomas Airport in the U.S. Virgin Islands in February.
"The Trump administration's brazenly unconstitutional attempt to deport this young woman in violation of a federal court order should shock the conscience of every American. Had we not intervened, she may very well be in a foreign country right now, separated from her family like so many others illegally deported to third countries," Eric Lee, Sakeik's attorney, said in a statement Wednesday.
Asked by ABC News for comment regarding Sakeik's release, a Department of Homeland Security official said in an email, "Following her American husband and her filing the appropriate legal applications for her to remain in the country and become a legal permanent resident, she was released from ICE custody.”
The government had attempted to deport Sakeik twice -- the first time reportedly to Israel just hours before it launched its attack on Iran in June. The second attempt to deport her came despite a federal judge ordering that she remain in the northern district of Texas and not be removed from the U.S.
The government and its attorneys told her husband, Taahir Shaikh, and Sakeik's lawyers that the attempt to deport her earlier this week was "an honest mistake," according to Shaikh. On Tuesday evening, Shaikh received a call from his wife asking him to pick her up from the Texas detention facility where she was being held.
"I'm just completely confused. And she says, 'An ICE officer just came to me and said he's going to serve me papers for my release.' And I told her, 'I don't believe it,'" Shaikh told ABC News.
"The ICE officer spoke directly with our legal team, and about four hours later, I was able to go pick her up directly from Prairieland Detention Center -- just me by myself, and at 9:30 at night, she ran directly into my arms," Shaikh said.
Sakeik's family is from Gaza, but she is legally stateless and has lived in the U.S. since she was 8 years old. Her family had traveled to the U.S. on a tourist visa and applied for asylum, according to Shaikh.
Sakeik was issued a deportation order more than a decade ago after her asylum case was denied, but she was permitted to stay in the U.S. under what's known as an "order of supervision," in which she was given a work permit and regularly checks in with federal immigration authorities, according to her attorney and her husband.
Her husband filed a green card application for her in February, two days after she was detained, and the first part of her application has been approved, he said.
"Now that we have that first part of the green card application already approved, all we need to do is work on reopening her immigration case, and once that order of deportation is lifted, she has a clear path to a green card," Shaikh said.
After nearly five months in detention, an ICE officer told Sakeik that she would not be re-detained but there will be future commitments for her to show up either in immigration courts or immigration check ins, Shaikh said.
"I'm not saying that that is justice served, because five months of detention for a woman who never committed a crime, there is no justice served by, you know, announcing her discretionary release, but it's a good step in the right direction," Shaikh said.
Shaikh said his wife's release was a shock after the government had refused her release at every stage of her detention.
"Whoever it was that made the call probably saw just how many mistakes the people on the ground were making with my wife, and they probably felt like they dug themselves way too deep to where they knew they couldn't afford to make another mistake. And before they allowed that mistake to happen, someone made a call to say, 'We're going to grant this release,'" Shaikh said.
Shaikh also pointed to the media attention his wife's case had garnered.
In statement about Sakeik's detention shared with ABC News previously, DHS said Sakeik was not detained as part of a targeted operation by ICE.
"She chose to leave the country and was then flagged by [Customs and Border Patrol] trying to reenter the U.S.," Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said in an initial statement.
When ABC News asked if the government's stance was that travel to the Virgin Islands, a U.S. territory, constitutes someone choosing to "leave the country," DHS provided an updated statement.
"She chose to fly over international waters and outside the U.S. customs zone and was then flagged by CBP trying to reenter the continental U.S.," McLaughlin said in a second statement.
"She overstayed her visa and has had a final order by an immigration judge for over a decade," McLaughlin said in the statement. "President Trump and Secretary Noem are committed to restoring integrity to the visa program and ensuring it is not abused to allow aliens a permanent one-way ticket to remain in the U.S."
DHS did not acknowledge the judge's order barring Sakeik's removal from Texas or that she was previously under an order of supervision.
