Advocates seek release of Kashmiri filmmaker held by ICE
The Free Arfat Sheikh campaign says the filmmaker was arrested at Dulles airport and is being held in Virginia. US authorities have not commented.
The Free Arfat Sheikh campaign is calling for the release of Kashmiri filmmaker Arfat Sheikh, saying US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested him at Washington Dulles International Airport on 24 September.
The campaign says Sheikh, 42, is being held at the Caroline Detention Facility in Virginia. It said he was due to appear before an immigration judge for a procedural hearing and bond assessment on 7 October. The supplied account does not report whether either proceeding took place or its outcome.
According to the campaign, Sheikh arrived in the US on a student visa in 2019 to study film at Georgia State University and sought asylum in 2020. ICE and the Department of Homeland Security have not commented on his detention, Al Jazeera reported.
The campaign says Sheikh’s first feature film, Saffron Kingdom, received several honours, and that he received the Emerging Filmmaker Activist Award at the Teaneck International Film Festival in 2025.
Al Jazeera reported that about 50,000 ICE arrests were recorded across the US in July and August, during a summer when arrests reached record levels.
