A North Texas woman who's in the process of applying for a green card could be deported to an unknown location as soon as tonight, her husband told reporters Thursday.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials took Ward Sakeik, a 22-year-old photographer of Palestinian descent, into custody in February. Sakeik and her husband Taahir Shaikh, 28, had flown into Miami on the way back from their honeymoon in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Upon arriving at the airport, Shaikh said officials asked the couple their legal statuses and to see proof of Sakeik's immigration compliance record. Sakeik was scheduled for her annual check-in with ICE in July, her husband said.
"They said, 'Just show us this and she'll be released when she returns to Dallas.' That didn't happen," Shaikh said. "What happened is we had to board the same plane going to Miami, but we weren't even allowed to speak to each other. They threatened her by saying, 'if you even speak to your husband on this plane, there will be consequences.'"
Sakeik has been in detention for 120 days, mostly at the El Valle Detention Center an hour outside of McAllen and, most recently, at Prairieland Detention Center southwest of Dallas. ICE officials told her husband's attorneys she'd be deported soon but did not disclose the location.
Shaikh has not been able to speak to her for two days, he said.
Sakeik was born in Saudi Arabia to a refugee family and came with them to the United States when she was 8 on a visitor's visa, her husband said, but she Sakeik has been on a removal order since her family first tried to seek asylum in the U.S. in 2011.
She and Shaikh, a U.S. citizen, got married at the end of January. Shaikh said Transportation Safety Administration agents, customs officers and American Airlines gate agents told the couple they'd be clear to travel within the U.S. and return as long as they presented Sakeik's ICE check-in paperwork.
Some who have protested in support of Palestinians amid the war in Gaza allege they've been recently detained by immigration officials because of their activism, but Shaikh said his wife hasn't made public statements about the conflict.
"Even though there has been a sense of feeling for her ancestral roots, at the end of the day, she has complied," he said. "She has made sure that she knows where she stands and she knows that being in this country was and is a privilege."
四虎影院 has reached out to ICE for information on Sakeik's current location and whether she'll soon be deported.
Mustafaa Carroll with the North Texas chapter of Council on American-Islamic Relations, which hosted the press conference for Sakeik, said the group is calling on ICE to halt her deportation and disclose her location.
"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," Carroll said.
Sakeik's potential deportation comes in the wake of Los Angeles protests over ICE raids and subsequent protests across the country in response to President Donald Trump's deployment of military forces to California. More protests are expected in Texas this weekend, and Gov. Greg Abbott has deployed state military forces to meet them.
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