Indian filmmaker Arfat Sheikh has been detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents while travelling to Washington. The award-winning director of Saffron Kingdom was detained at Washington Dulles Airport on September 24 without a warrant by ICE agents, an advocacy campaign seeking his release said.
This is ICE. They have come for me. The men were in plain clothes and not wearing any uniforms that indicated that they were federal agents. During the entire interaction, I never saw any of the men present a warrant or say why they were taking Arfat. They took Arfat Sheikh off the jetway onto the tarmac. He did not resist,” she added.
Sheikh, 42, lives in Alexandria, Virginia, and was travelling to Washington with award-winning author and filmmaker Tara Dorabji to take part in an event on art and resistance when he was taken into immigration custody. He later filed for asylum in 2020 and has a pending immigration application.
“On September 24th, 2026, our friend and filmmaker, Arfat Sheikh, was unlawfully detained by ICE coming off a plane at Dulles Airport (IAD),” the ‘Support Arfat Sheikh’s Release’ campaign said. The campaign — launched online by “a community of friends, colleagues, Americans, and family united to bring Arfat Sheikh home” — claimed Sheikh entered the US legally on a student visa in 2019 to pursue graduate studies in film at Georgia State University. “Arfat said to me, “Tara, Tara.
