Key Takeaways
- Award-winning filmmaker Arfat Sheikh was released from US ICE detention on bond.
- Sheikh was detained on September 24 at Washington Dulles International Airport.
- His deportation case against him continues despite the release.
Award-winning Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) filmmaker Arfat Sheikh has been released from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention on bond, according to a statement by a campaign of his friends and relatives.
Sheikh, who has explored conflict in his native IIOJK through his work, was detained by ICE while coming off a plane from California at the Washington Dulles International Airport on September 24.
His bond was granted on Tuesday, and he was released on Thursday, according to the campaign.
The campaign stated that Sheikh, who lived in Alexandria, Virginia, entered the US in 2019 on a student visa to pursue graduate studies in film at Georgia State University and filed for asylum in 2020.
Sheikh had a pending immigration application and was authorized to work and live in the US, the campaign added.
DHS said on Wednesday that Sheikh was arrested on September 24 and that he 'legally entered the US on a temporary basis and illegally overstayed his lawful admittance.'
A pending application does not confer legal status in the US, according to DHS, which stated that Sheikh 'will receive due process.'
Sheikh’s first feature film, 'Saffron Kingdom,' won Best Feature Film at the Chicago Filmmakers Awards, the LA Film and Documentary Awards, the Melbourne Independent Film Festival, and the Wake Forest Film Festival.
The film explored conflict in IIOJK through the journey of a family from Srinagar in IIOJK in the 1990s to Atlanta in 2019, and Sheikh won the Emerging Filmmaker Activist Award at the Teaneck International Film Festival.
