North Texas man fears wife’s deportation amid honeymoon return

RICHARDSON, Texas — A North Texas man fears his wife could be deported to an undisclosed country as soon as Thursday night after she was detained while returning from their honeymoon earlier this year, he said. 

Taahir Shaikh said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have detained his wife, Ward Sakeik, for four months after stopping her while the newlywed couple was returning from their honeymoon in the U.S. Virgin Islands in February. 

He said ICE told him they were deporting her Thursday night — but would not tell him where. 

Sakeik’s legal status is complicated, Shaikh explained at a news conference called by the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the Council on American-Islamic relations. She was born in Saudi Arabia to Palestinian parents — but doesn’t have citizenship in either country. 

Sakeik’s family brought her to the United States when she was eight years old, Shaikh said. He said her family applied for asylum, and a judge signed a removal order — but no country would accept them. She was later given legal permission to work in the US, he said.

“She’s stateless, she doesn’t hold citizenship in any part of this world,” he said. 

But she’s not homeless; Shaikh said she has built a life in North Texas, attended UT Arlington, created a wedding photography business, and fell in love. 

“I want to see the woman who became a model citizen with the opportunities that she was afforded to become an American on paper,” Shaikh said. 

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials also did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

“Why do I deserve to keep going on with my life when I see what my wife is going through for 120 days,” he said. “[Now she’s] boarding a plane to who knows where after this country showed her every aspect of the American dream.”

He said they had submitted her green card application and she had attended all mandated immigration “check-in” appointments, and planned to go to another one this July. 

“It’s simply inhumane and shameful that a person who has followed every rule laid out by our government should be deported, especially a bride separated from her husband for simply taking a honeymoon,” said Council on American-Islamic Relations executive director Mustafaa Carroll. “This is the only country she’s known, she has not been raised in any other country.” 

Because of Sakeik’s stateless status, it is not clear to which country ICE may deport her. Shaikh said he hasn’t been able to speak with her in more than 48 hours. 

“They locked her in for 120 days saying, ‘You were given your due process when you were 8, you don’t qualify,'” he said. “Why wouldn’t we give a person like that the opportunity to become a citizen on paper?”