'Legally entered, illegally overstayed:' Indian filmmaker Arfat Sheikh released: Why ICE detained him at the airport?

Award-winning Indian filmmaker Arfat Sheikh, was released from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention on bond on Thursday after being detained for over two weeks. Sheikh was detained on September 24 at Washington Dulles International Airport while getting off a plane from California.

He was travelling with his friend and author and filmmaker Tara Dorabji when he was stopped. The two were on their way to attend an event in Washington.

On Tuesday, Sheikh's bond was set, and he was released on Thursday. However, the deportation case against him continues. According to reports, he was detained unlawfully.

A video of Sheikh being detained by ICE agents, who were reportedly not in uniform, has been shared on X. In the footage, he is seen stepping out of an aeroplane with a group of people.

The filmmaker entered the United States legally on a student visa to pursue graduate studies in film at Georgia State University and filed for asylum in 2020.

As per the reports, he has been living legally and had a pending immigration application. He was authorized to live and work in the United States.

Meanwhile, a Reuters report stated that the DHS (the US Department of Homeland Security) said Sheikh "legally entered ​the US temporarily and illegally overstayed his lawful admittance." A pending application does not confer legal status in the US, DHS added.

Trump's crackdown on immigrants

President Donald Trump's administration, which has launched a crackdown on immigration, 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."

The case comes at a time when Trump's government has intensified its crackdown on immigration.

In August, he issued another executive order seeking to curb birthright citizenship, this time by cracking down on what the administration calls "birth tourism."

The order marks a renewed push to limit the constitutional guarantee, after the US Supreme Court recently struck down a previous bid to deny automatic citizenship to children born in the US to undocumented immigrants and those on temporary visas.