WASHINGTON — Kashmir-born filmmaker Arfat Sheikh, 42, has been detained by US immigration officials after legally coming to the United States to study and later claiming asylum, his family and friends said on Wednesday.
“The family is pursuing the case and cooperating with the authorities. We expect him to be free soon,” said a family member.
According to an online advocacy group, Free Arfat Sheikh, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) unlawfully detained Sheikh when he was coming off a plane at Washington Dulles International Airport on September 24, and detained him at the Caroline Detention Centre in Bowling Green, Virginia, for 11 days.
Sheikh, whose work has explored conflict in his native Kashmir, won many awards after multiple screenings of his movie “Saffron Kingdom” in several parts of the United States and Europe.
“His work explores identity, resilience, and justice through deeply personal and politically resonant narratives,” said the advocacy group.
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed on Wednesday that Sheikh was arrested on September 24. The department said Sheikh “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, DHS said, adding he will receive due process.
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, according to the statement. It did not describe the grounds for his asylum claim. The statement said he had a pending immigration application and was authorized to work and live in the US.
President Donald Trump’s administration said in August it was working “to identify and revoke the non-immigrant visas of foreigners who have come to the US claiming to be short-term visitors, but then file for asylum to stay here permanently.”
Trump has pursued an immigration crackdown and deportation drive that he says aims to improve domestic security. Rights advocates say the crackdown has violated due process and free speech rights and has created an unsafe environment, particularly for ethnic minorities, who have raised concerns about racial profiling.
“Saffron Kingdom,” which is Sheikh’s first feature film produced in 2024, 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. Sheikh won the Emerging Filmmaker Activist Award at the Teaneck International Film Festival.
The film explored conflict in Kashmir through the journey of a family from Srinagar in India-administered Kashmir in the 1990s to Atlanta in 2019.
Muslim-majority Kashmir is claimed in full by both India and Islamic Pakistan, which each control only part of it and have fought wars over it. India revoked Kashmir’s constitutional autonomy in August 2019.
Source: Saudi Gazette