US tries to deport stateless Palestinian woman again despite judge's order
Ward Sakeik, a 22-year-old newlywed, was detained in February on her way home from her honeymoon in the US Virgin Islands. Last month, the government attempted to deport her without informing her where she was being sent, according to her husband, Taahir Shaikh. An officer eventually told her that she would be sent to the Israel border – just hours before Israel launched airstrikes on Iran.
After her lawyers filed suit on her behalf, US district judge Ed Kinkeade issued an order on 22 June barring the government from deporting Sakeik or removing her from the Texas district where she is being detained while her case is decided.
But on Monday, the government tried once again to deport her. Officers at the detention facility woke her up early in the morning on Monday, and told her she 'had to leave'. When she tried to tell the officer there was a court order blocking her removal, the officer responded: 'It's not up to me.'
'Sakeik informed me that when she arrived at intake, her belongings had been placed outside the door,' her lawyer testified in court documents.
Sakeik's family is from Gaza, but she was born in Saudi Arabia, which does not grant birthright citizenship to the children of foreigners. She and her family came to the US on a tourist visa when she was eight and applied for asylum – but were denied. She has had deportation orders since she was nine years old, but she and her family were allowed to remain in Texas as long as they complied with requirements to check in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Eventually, she graduated from high school in Mesquite, Texas, earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Texas Arlington and started a wedding photography business. On 31 January, she had a wedding of her own. She applied for a green card, and the first stage of her application was approved.
'The past 12 months of my life have just been the highest of the highs and the lowest of the lows. You go from buying your first home, planning your dream wedding, attending that wedding, going on your honeymoon, to being separated for over 120 days,' said her husband, a US citizen, in a press conference in June.
Due to Sakeik's immigration status, the couple had deliberately chosen not to travel internationally for their honeymoon, deciding to explore the Virgin Islands, a US territory, instead.
On 11 February, a Customs and Border Protection officer stopped Sakeik and asked for proof she was under an 'order of supervision', allowing her to remain in the US despite deportation orders.
Sakeik was kept handcuffed on the plane to Miami, according to ABC News, where the couple's flight back to Texas had a layover. The couple was told she would be released there.
But she has been held in detention ever since.
Shaikh has struggled to cope in the weeks since. He sleeps in the guest room of the house they purchased together, rather than the master bed, he told the Dallas Morning News last month. 'I don't sit on my couch when I eat my meals, I sit on the floor,' he said, out of survivor's guilt.
The Department of Homeland Security claimed that Sakeik was flagged because she 'chose to fly over international waters and outside the US customs zone and was then flagged by CBP trying to re-enter the continental US'.
'The facts are she is in our country illegally. She overstayed her visa and has had a final order by an immigration judge for over a decade,' said assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin.
McLaughlin did not address the Guardian's question about why the government tried to deport Sakeik despite a judge's order barring her removal.
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