Donald Trump‘s mass deportation and subsequent ICE detention have taken a toll on many immigrants who have been living in the United States without required documents. The latest victim of his immigration crackdown is Ward Sakeik, who claimed that she “lost five months” of her life because of the President’s executive order.
Sakeik, who is a stateless Palestinian, recently married a U.S. citizen but was detained over her immigration status. Since being released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention earlier this week, she has given a long statement, blaming the Trump administration for depriving her of five months of her life.
During a press conference on Thursday, Sakeik, 22, lamented, “I did lose five months of my life because I was criminalized for being stateless, something that I absolutely have no control over. I didn’t choose to be stateless. I didn’t do a crime that made me stateless. I had no choice. I was just stateless.”
“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 photographer business here in DFW (Dallas-Fort Worth) and I recently married Taahir.”
The young woman was detained by ICE while on her way back from her honeymoon in the U.S. Virgin Islands in February. Despite a recent court order prohibiting her removal from the country, the administration attempted to deport her for the second time. On Tuesday, she was finally released from Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas.
Ward Sakeik is stateless. She officially has no citizenship anywhere on planet Earth. She’s 22 but has lived here since she was 8 and was given LEGAL permission to live and work here under an “order of supervision”. She recently got married and decided to go to the U.S. Virgin… pic.twitter.com/a0mx3BLYyy
— VT (@brownchubbybear) June 22, 2025
Two days before being detained by ICE, Ward Sakeik filed for her green card, and the application was approved last week, as per ABC News. Speaking with the reporters, the woman 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. I am also in the final stages of getting my green card, so I’m very, very close.”
She also provided some insights into the detention facility where she was held. “The restrooms are also very, very, very much unhygienic. The beds have rust everywhere, are not properly maintained — ants, cockroaches, grasshoppers, spiders all over the facility. Girls will get bit. Girls will wake up with giant bruises,” Ward said.
Now, she plans on advocating for those who remain in ICE detention. According to her husband, whom she recently married, Sakeik and her family fled to the United States from Gaza on a tourist visa and subsequently applied for asylum. Although the deportation order against her was issued over a decade ago, she was permitted to stay in America through an “order of supervision.”
Released from ICE detention last night!
Thrilled to report Ward Sakeik is free. She is a 22-yr-old stateless Palestinian woman detained by ICE since February after returning from her honeymoon in the US Virgin Islands.
Maria Kari, Chris-Godshall Bennett and my statement: pic.twitter.com/vu8ua1KQ1V
— Eric Lee (@EricLeeAtty) July 2, 2025
This means she was required to regularly check in with federal immigration authorities, as revealed by her lawyer. An official from the Department of Homeland Security noted that she was released from ICE custody after her husband filed the appropriate legal applications and got them approved.
However, Maria Kari, who represented her case, said otherwise. “They did not release her because of [filing] the I-130. They, in fact, tried to deport her after finding out about that I-130 and we shared that with the government that it had been approved.”
Sakeik and her attorneys harshly slammed the Trump administration for mistreating immigrants and holding them at unhygienic detention centers.
