Newlywed bride's honeymoon ends with months of ICE detention and the prospect of deportation

Source: ABC News

Newlywed bride's honeymoon ends with months of ICE detention and the prospect of deportation

Ward Sakeik has lived in the U.S. for 14 years and is married to a U.S. citizen.

ByNadine El-Bawab and Armando Garcia
June 21, 2025, 5:35 PM

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But after spending nine days in the U.S. Virgin Islands, the couple's trip ended with Sakeik, 22, being detained for what has become months in several U.S. immigration detention centers.

Sakeik, whose family is from Gaza but is legally stateless, has lived in the U.S. since she was 8, when her family travelled to the U.S. on a tourist visa and applied for asylum, according to her husband. While she was issued a deportation order more than a decade ago, Sakeik was permitted to stay in the U.S. under what's known as an "order of supervision," in which she regularly checked in with federal immigration authorities and is permitted work authorization, according to her lawyer and husband.

At the St. Thomas Airport, as the couple prepared to return home on Feb. 11, Sakeik was detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection -- and has been held in custody in the months since.

Then, last week, the government attempted to deport Sakeik without informing her where she was being sent, according to Shaikh. Sakeik says an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer told her she was being taken to the Israel border, he said. After she waited in the airport for two hours, she was sent back to Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, where she had recently been transferred.

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Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/newlywed-brides-honeymoon-ends-months-ice-detention-prospect/story?id=123036280