Sheikh, who lives in Alexandria, Va., and is best known for directing the Georgia-filmed movie "Saffron Kingdom," was traveling to Washington, D.C., to appear on an arts panel when he was detained, according to a statement he released this week.

In the statement, Sheikh said the experience echoed a trauma his family has carried for more than two decades. His father, the singer Ghulam Nabi Sheikh, disappeared while traveling to Delhi in 2003.

"For a moment, I felt as though history was repeating itself," Sheikh said. "My father, Ghulam Nabi Sheikh, was disappeared while traveling to Delhi. And here I was, all these years later, being taken away by men in plain clothes as I stepped off a plane in the United States."

He added that he could not stop thinking about what the news would do to his mother, who already endured her husband's disappearance, and to his sisters.

According to Sheikh, he was handcuffed at the airport and transported to an ICE holding facility in Chantilly, Va. His belongings, including his jacket and shoelaces, were taken from him. He said he was placed alone in a freezing concrete cell with blood splatters on the floor.

He was later held at the Caroline Detention Facility in Bowling Green, Va. He has since been released.

"I have been released, but a part of me remains inside Caroline Detention Facility, with the men I came to know, the stories they shared, and the dreams they still carry," Sheikh said. "I want us to remember the people who are still inside."

Sheikh used his statement to call on Congress to abolish ICE and end what he described as unlawful detentions.

Representatives for ICE did not respond to questions about the conditions Sheikh described or the reason for his detention.

Sheikh's immigration hearing, originally set for Oct. 27, has been postponed to Dec. 4.

"Saffron Kingdom" tells the story of a Kashmiri woman and her family grappling with the abduction of her husband amid political unrest in Kashmir. The film draws in part on Sheikh's own life and his father's disappearance.

Sheikh's case has drawn attention in Atlanta's arts community, where he is remembered as a Georgia State graduate whose work was shot in the state. His account adds to a growing body of testimony from detainees about conditions inside federal immigration facilities, and his call to abolish ICE places him among a chorus of voices pressing Congress for systemic change.

For local readers, the story raises questions about how immigration enforcement operates at airports and what oversight exists when U.S. citizens and long-term residents are not the only people caught in detention. Sheikh's hearing in December will be a key next step in determining what happens to his immigration status.