Overview

• Ward Sakeik, a 22-year-old stateless Palestinian married to a U.S. citizen, was taken into ICE custody at Miami International Airport in February and held for 140 days despite her pending marriage-based green card application.
• She testified that she was shackled for 16 hours without food or water during an initial bus transfer and endured periods of up to 50 hours without phone access to contact her attorney or husband.
• ICE officers twice tried to deport her—on June 12 and June 30—even after a June 22 injunction from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas prohibited her removal.
• Department of Homeland Security officials defended detention conditions by citing certified meals, medical care and communication opportunities while noting Sakeik’s visa overstay and a decade-old removal order.
• Released July 2 and reunited with her husband, Sakeik and her legal team are pressing challenges to ICE detention and deportation practices as her green card petition moves forward.