A newlywed bride from Texas, who was released from immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) custody on Thursday, said she was treated like “cattle” during her time in detention.Ward Sakeik, a 22-year-old stateless Palestinian woman married to a US citizen, spoke publicly for the first time since being detained at a Miami airport in February. She had been held in ICE custody for 140 days after returning from her honeymoon.After arriving back from the US Virgin Islands with her husband Taahir Shaikh, Sakeik said, “I was put in a gray tracksuit and shackles immediately,” during a press conference held in Dallas-Fort Worth.“I was handcuffed for 16 hours without any water or food on the bus. I was moved around like cattle,” Sakeik added.However, department of homeland security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin told newsportal Newsweek, “Any claim that there is a lack of food or subprime conditions at ICE detention centers are false.”“All detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers. Ensuring the safety, security, and well-being of individuals in our custody is a top priority at ICE. Meals are certified by dietitians,” she said.US President Donald Trump has vowed to carry out the largest mass deportation operation in US history. In the early months of his second term, his administration has already deported over 100,000 people. The White House has stated that anyone living in the country without legal status is considered a “criminal.”Meanwhile, deaths in ICE detention centers are on track to exceed last year’s numbers, with 12 people confirmed to have died in custody since October 2024. Advocacy groups have blamed the rising toll on what they describe as the Trump administration’s “increased and aggressive” detention policies.ICE attempted to deport Ward Sakeik in the early hours of June 30, despite a federal court order blocking her removal, just one day before her eventual release.According to her legal team, Sakeik was woken up by guards around 5 am local time on Monday and told to get ready to leave the facility immediately. This marked the second time ICE had tried to deport her in violation of court orders.The first attempt occurred on June 12, when ICE officers escorted her to the tarmac at Fort Worth Alliance airport, informing her she was being deported to “the border of Israel.” This was despite the government being aware that Sakeik is stateless and has no legal route to citizenship in either Israel or the West Bank.“These deportations, they just happened all of a sudden, I was not given a phone call,” Sakeik said at the press conference.She explained that while she eventually managed to contact her husband, “a phone call was not provided to me from ICE.”“I just had to wait and take a very, very long time to pack my stuff to just buy time to wait for the phone system to work to call Taahir,” she said.Sakeik also shared that “there were multiple days where it would be 36 hours, 50 hours, where I was not allowed to make a phone call to my attorney or my husband.”Around the time of her wedding in January, she had applied for a green card and successfully passed the initial stage of the process. Due to her immigration status, the couple chose to honeymoon in the US Virgin Islands to avoid international travel.Despite her pending green card application and documents outlining her complex immigration background, Sakeik was detained upon return.She was born in Saudi Arabia but does not hold citizenship there, and came to the United States with her family at the age of 8.“I have been a law-abiding resident of the United States since I was 8 years old. I went to college. I run a successful wedding photography business here in [Dallas-Fort Worth],” Sakeik said.“My family did come here in 2011 seeking asylum, and we have followed all immigration policies and have complied with every single thing, every single document, every single piece of paper, every single thing that was thrown at us,” she added.However, McLaughlin said, “Ward Sakeik was not ‘complying with immigration policies.’ The facts are she is in our country illegally.”After the family’s asylum request was denied, they were not deported due to their stateless status. Instead, they were placed under an order of supervision, which required them to report to immigration authorities once a year.“Ensuring the safety, security, and well-being of individuals in our custody is a top priority at ICE. Why does the media continue to fall for the sob stories of illegal aliens in detention and villainize ICE law enforcement?”, McLaughlin added. She added that Sakeik “overstayed her visa” and has had a final removal order for over a decade, stating that President Trump and secretary Kristi Noem are committed to fixing visa system abuses.At a press conference, Ward Sakeik said, “The humanity that I was taught in school growing up is not the humanity that I’ve seen. It was stripped away from me.”“I lost five months of my life because I was criminalized for being stateless, something I have absolutely no control over. I didn’t choose to be stateless,” she added.
