A Palestinian girl launched from Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention on Tuesday says she and others confronted mistreatment whereas detained. Nonetheless, the Division of Homeland Safety dismissed her account as one in every of many “sob tales.”
“Your entire detention course of was not nice. I wouldn’t want this upon anyone. It was very laborious, very traumatizing, and really, very troublesome, is what I’d say,” Ward Sakeik advised CNN’s Danny Freeman on Saturday morning.
Sakeik, 22, a stateless individual whose household is from Gaza, was born in Saudi Arabia, a rustic that doesn’t grant birthright citizenship to kids of foreign-born dad and mom, according to The Guardian. She entered the U.S. legally beneath a vacationer visa when she was 8 and was allowed to stay, so long as she repeatedly checked in with ICE.
After getting married, she started the method of acquiring a inexperienced card, however was taken by ICE officers in February on her approach again to Texas from her honeymoon within the Virgin Islands, a U.S. territory.
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin advised CNN that Sakeik’s arrest was not a part of a focused operation by ICE, however that she was flagged by Customs and Border Patrol making an attempt to reenter the U.S. after flying over worldwide waters.
In a press release shared with JS, McLaughlin mentioned Sakeik was not “complying with immigration insurance policies.”
“The details are she is in our nation illegally,” McLaughlin mentioned. “She overstayed her visa and has had a ultimate order by an immigration choose for over a decade.”
Sakeik was launched Tuesday and appeared at a press convention the place she talked about her expertise, saying she was handcuffed for 16 hours with none water or meals on a bus.
“I used to be moved round like cattle, and the U.S. authorities tried to dump me in part of the world the place I don’t know the place I’m going and what I’m doing or something,” Sakeik mentioned.
Sakeik went on to explain her circumstances, which she mentioned included unhygienic restrooms, rusted beds and bugs that bit different detained migrants.
“I used to be criminalized for being stateless, one thing that I completely haven’t any management over,” she mentioned. “I didn’t select to be stateless. I had no selection.”
She is now utilizing her expertise to advocate for others who’re going through the identical remedy, together with girls she met in detention.
“A whole lot of these girls don’t have the cash for legal professionals or media outreach. They arrive right here to offer for his or her households and that’s just about it,” Sakeik mentioned. “They’re moms, daughters, sisters, grandmothers. They’re superheroes. They’re people and their lives maintain values and I’ll proceed to battle with them, for them, each single step of the best way.”
Within the assertion shared with JS, McLaughlin mentioned “any declare that there’s a lack of meals or subprime circumstances at ICE detention facilities are false,” and that those that are detained are supplied with correct meals, medical remedy, and alternatives to speak with relations and legal professionals.
“Guaranteeing the security, safety, and well-being of people in our custody is a prime precedence at ICE. Meals are licensed by dieticians,” McLaughlin mentioned. “Why does the media proceed to fall for the sob tales of unlawful aliens in detention and villainize ICE regulation enforcement?”
DHS had given the same statement to Newsweek earlier this week. Sakeik’s legal professional, Eric Lee, responded to McLaughlin’s feedback Saturday morning on CNN.
“They known as it a ‘sob story,‘” Lee mentioned. “I suppose what we’d ask the American individuals is, “Who’re they gonna consider, their mendacity eyes or the statements of the people who find themselves liable for finishing up what are actually crimes towards humanity right here in america?’”
Earlier this month, NPR published a report on inhumane circumstances at ICE services, interviewing greater than a dozen detainees, relations and legal professionals who described points like extreme overcrowding and lack of meals.
