Kashmiri filmmaker Arfat Sheikh released from ICE detention after two weeks.
DHS says his case will go on as he overstayed his student visa.
An award-winning Indian filmmaker from Kashmir Arfat Sheikh was released from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention on bond Thursday weeks after his detention on September 24, his family and friends said. The Free Arfat Sheikh campaign said Arfat is based in Alexandria, Virginia and he came to the US in 2019 on a student visa to pursue graduate studies in film at Georgia State University. The Department of Homeland Security did not dispute the details and confirmed that Arfat indeed entered the US legally but they accused him of illegally overstaying the student visa, adding that a pending asylum application does not make him a legal resident.
DHS said he will receive due process. They have been campaigning for his release from what they called an illegal detention when Sheikh was coming off a plane from California at Washington Dulles International Airport. You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.
Sheikh’s bond was granted Tuesday and he was released on Thursday but the case against him will continue.