Newlywed released from ICE detention says she lost '5 months of her life'

Ward Sakeik, a stateless Palestinian who recently married a U.S. citizen, said she lost five months of her life because of her statelessness in her first remarks since being released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention earlier this week.

"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," Sakeik said at a press conference on Thursday.

"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," Sakeik said.

Sakeik, 22, was detained by ICE on the way back from her honeymoon in the U.S. Virgin Islands in February. She was released from Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, on Tuesday, just days after the government attempted to deport her for the second time -- despite a recent court order prohibiting her removal from the U.S.

Sakeik filed her green card application two days after she was detained. The first phase of her application was approved last week.

"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 said.

Sakeik described her detention, saying "humanity was stripped away from me."

"I was moved around like cattle and the U.S. government attempted to dump me in part of the world where I don't know where I'm going and what I'm doing or anything," Sakeik said.

Sakeik said the conditions of the detention facilities are "terrible, extremely unhygienic, dust everywhere."

"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," Sakeik said.

Sakeik said she plans to continue to advocate on behalf of those who remain in ICE detention.

"I also want the world to know that the women who do come here come here for a better life, but they're criminalized for that. They are dehumanized, and they're stripped away from their rights. We have been treated as a 'less-than' just simply for wanting a better life," she said.

Sakeik and her family, which is from Gaza, 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.

Asked by ABC News for comment regarding Sakeik's release, a Department of Homeland Security official said in an email, "Following her American husband and her filing the appropriate legal applications for her to remain in the country and become a legal permanent resident, she was released from ICE custody."

Maria Kari, one of Sakeik's attorneys, pushed back, saying, "That's not at all true."

"They did not release her because of [filing] the I-130," Kari said, referring to the petition that's one of the initial steps toward someone getting legal status. "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's attorneys harshly criticized the government and its treatment of migrants under the Trump administration.

"We thought the American government didn't recognize Palestine as a country. Apparently, that was not an issue that they felt was a hindrance to Ward's deportation there," Eric Lee, another of Sakeik's attorneys, said Thursday.

"But more importantly, Palestine is experiencing a genocide at the moment, and the idea that someone who had lived in this country since she was 8 years old would be sent to a place where there's no water, where people are dying of disease and starvation, dying under Israeli bombs, is something that should shock everybody," Lee said.

Sakeik had several layers of protection against the government's actions, including under the Deferred and Forced Departure program, put into place by the Biden administration, which forbids the government from attempting to deport Palestinians, according to Kari.

"She had the right to travel to a U.S. territory which is what she did. This young couple researched their options for their honeymoon they went to the U.S. Virgin Islands, and it was a domestic flight yet here we are with Ward having spent nearly five months in detention as a result of that domestic flight," Kari said.

Texas House of Representatives Rep. Terry Meza, a Democrat, also expressed support for Sakeik and celebrated her release, harshly criticizing the government's actions against immigrants, saying, "They are just going after anybody and everybody that they can get, which is exemplified by you."

"Not a more honorable person that they could take than she is. So, so glad that you're back and that you're here together again," Meza said.

"I'm here in solidarity with the Muslim community as we work together to oppose what the current administration is doing against the Constitution," she said.