Handcuffed and Moved Around Like Animals: Why Was the Indian Bride Detained in America?

Handcuffed and Moved Around Like Animals: Ward Sakeik, a stateless Palestinian woman, was freed by immigration detention having spent four months in custody. Although she was complying with the regulations and reporting to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement since the age of nine, her visit to the Virgin Islands resulted in her detention by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The Guardian reported that Sakeik, who is 22 years old, was released on Thursday after being detained on her travels back to the United States of America along with her husband after honeymoon in the American islands in February.

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She had criticized the conditions that she had to endure at the time of detention. “I was handcuffed for 16 hours without any water or food on the bus,” she said.

“I was moved around like cattle. The US government tried to dump me in a part of the world where I had no idea where I was going, what I was doing," WSWS quoted Sakeik as saying.

Being married to a US citizen Taahir Shaikh, Sakeik allegedly told the media that she, along with her husband had specifically chosen the US Virgin Islands so that no problems can be generated with international travel since her green card application is still in progress. However, it did not happen the way it was supposed to be, immigration authorities continued to detain her on her way back.

She recalled her emotions upon release at a press conference: “I was overfilled with joy and a little shock. I mean, it was my first time seeing a tree in five months,” The Guardian quoted Ward Sakeik as saying.

Soon after her release, she ran to her husband, exclaiming, “I was like, oh my God, I can touch him without handcuffs and a glass. It was just freedom.”

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Why was Ward Sakeik arrested

The Department of Homeland Security told the Guardian 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.”

Nevertheless, no passport is required in US Virgin Islands which is an American territory.

Being born in a family of Gaza origin in Saudi Arabia, Sakeik, however, is a stateless person as Saudi Arabia does not adopt the rule of birthright citizenship of foreigners.

She arrived in the United States with her family on a tourist visa when she was eight and they requested asylum but her family was denied. They could live in Texas as long as they check-in regularly with the immigration officials.

Through the years, Sakeik completed college and high school at the University of Texas, Arlington. She established a wedding photography business, two years later getting married to 28-year old Taahir Shaikh and started the paper work process of gaining a green card.

Her life made a twist ten days after her marriage when she was arrested in the process of coming back to her honeymoon.

Prior to her arrest, the US government had tried deportating her twice.

Initially, she was told she was going to the Israel border during the airstrikes on Iran that Israel was initiating at the time. In the second instance, she was told she would be deported again even though a judge had ordered she could not be removed from Texas.

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