Palestinian Newlywed Reveals on CNN Conditions of 140 Day ICE Detainment After DHS Dismisses ‘Sob Story’: ‘I Wouldn’t Wish This Upon Anybody’

Ward Sakeik accused ICE officials of mistreatment on multiple fronts following a 140 day detainment, which the Department of Homeland Security chalked up as a “sob story.”

Sakeik and her lawyer Eric Lee joined CNN on Saturday following Sakeik’s release from federal custody. Sakeik, 22, is a stateless Palestinian woman who had just gotten married to a US citizen when they returned to the United States from a trip to the Virgin Islands in February.

At a press conference in Dallas, Texas earlier in the week, Sakeik claimed she was moved around like “cattle” as she went through multiple deportation attempts. Sakeik said she was not given food or water for 16 hours when first detained and said she was denied phone access for long periods of time, though DHS has denied any mistreatment allegations. Sakeik had been in the process of receiving a green card.

Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin released a statement saying Sakeik was released after her husband filed “the appropriate legal applications” for his wife to stay in the country and become a permanent resident.

“The entire detention process was not great. I wouldn’t wish this upon anybody. It was very hard, very traumatizing, and very, very difficult, is what I would say,” Sakeik told CNN on Saturday.

Sakeik was born in Saudi Arabia to Palestinian parents and having no official state, she was required to check in with immigration officers annually.

Sakeik described her ICE detention:

There was not a lot of things for us to do. It was a very lazy, each day was lazier than the next day. You will run out of energy. I didn’t have much energy to do pretty much anything. All I had was my husband sending me books and I would be reading. Once these books were done, just send them back, get more books. We did have some Zumba and some dancing classes provided to us. It wasn’t a daily thing, but it was pretty nice in the second facility that I was in. There wasn’t a lot of people that spoke English in there. There was a lot of Latin women, so it was very hard for me to make a lot of friends, so often I just felt like I was a little isolated because I didn’t really speak the language.

Sakeik claimed the time was “confusing” as she could not get answers about her arrest. Lee raised the alarm about a statement McLaughlin released to Newsweek about Sakeik’s case in which she dismissed it as a “sob story.”

“Ensuring the safety, security, and well-being of individuals in our custody is a top priority at ICE. Why does the media continue to fall for the sob stories of illegal aliens in detention and villainize ICE law enforcement?” she said.

“They called it a sob story,” Lee said in response. “I guess what we would ask the American people is who are they gonna believe, their lying eyes or the statements of the people who are responsible for carrying out what are really crimes against humanity here in the United States.

Watch above via CNN.