LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Community members and loved ones in Louisville are advocating for the release of an immigrant woman from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Armelle Bondonga was completing her final interview on Wednesday, Aug. 12, in the process of getting her marriage-based green card when she was detained by ICE and separated from her husband and 1-year-old son.
"I felt completely powerless kissing my wife goodbye, not knowing when I would see her next," Terrance Bradshaw said in a statement.
Bondonga was detained at the Clark County Jail. Her lawyer said she does not have a criminal record and believes she has taken every step possible to attain legal citizenship in the United States.
At age 9 in 2013, Bondonga and her family legally came to the United States on a tourist visa, according to her lawyer.
That visa expired, but they remained in the United States, overstaying their visas.
While Bondonga was a minor, her family filed an asylum application that was later denied. Although her family has appealed the decision, the proceedings resulted in a removal order for her and her family.
The Board of Immigration Appeals never made a final decision on her family's asylum case, and it is still pending, Bondonga's lawyer said.
Bondonga's family may not have a clear path to U.S. citizenship, but she does. She married her husband, Terrance Bradshaw, a U.S. citizen, in 2022.
Bondonga's lawyers said her husband filed a petition this year in an effort to make her a U.S. citizen as a result of their marriage.
"As an American citizen who legally married an asylum-seeking immigrant, I believed that our full cooperation with the requirements of USCIS would be met with fair and just treatment from immigration services," Bradshaw said in a statement. "Everything was seemingly going smoothly. We felt like we were making real progress during our interview at the USCIS building, but things quickly took a turn for the worse becoming a living nightmare for our family. ICE agents brought us into separate rooms, attempting to explain how and why they were detaining Armelle. I am still processing how this could happen, and I do not know why this is happening. Armelle is not dangerous. She is not a threat to anyone, and she has hidden nothing from immigration services."
Her team is now working to submit a petition of writ of habeas corpus.
This petition challenges the legality of her continued detention, requiring the government to justify the need to hold her in detention while she pursues lawful permanent residency in the states.
A writ of habeas corpus can also prompt a federal court to order a bond hearing, require the government to take action on a detainee's case, or, in some circumstances, order release from detention, state representative and immigration lawyer Nima Kulkarni said.
"If you don't have any of those things occur, you might have a person just in detention indefinitely until an immigration court case can be scheduled," Kulkarni said.
There are no time parameters that limit how long a person can be held in detention without getting before an immigration judge.
Because immigration is handled in civil court and not criminal court, due process and rights to a speedy trial don't apply, Kulkarni said.
"Immigrants in detention are over 10 times more likely to prevail on the merits of their case if they have legal representation versus trying to navigate this very complicated process alone," she said.
Immigrants who don't have citizenship still have the right to receive representation, but they are responsible for covering all cost for their legal representation.
"Our immigration court has over, at this point, probably around 4 million case backlogs," Kulkarni said. "So, it can take years sometimes for someone to get in front of an immigration judge."
She said that the current administration is fast-tracking the deportation process. In many cases, people have been deported before ever standing before an immigration judge.
"This has happened to people who are citizens, people who have been green card holders for decades, people who have not ever again committed any actual crimes, people who have tried everything that they can to do things the right way," Kulkarni said.
Bondonga's loved ones like her former high school teacher Ryan Davis are devastated knowing that she is separated from her family.
"My only thoughts these past few days have been how do we get this mom back to her baby and her husband," said Davis.
Davis has celebrated his former Waggener High School student through many stages of her life, from student and active community servant to wife and mother.
"The bottom just fell out of everything, and I was just absolutely gutted," Davis said.
Now, he is grappling with how to advocate for her.
The Trump administration has been adamant about increasing ICE activity, saying that allowing undocumented immigrants to remain in the U.S. makes American citizens less safe.
WDRB reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and ICE on Saturday, asking:
Has Bondonga been charged or convicted of any crimes?
What is her immigration status, and is there any proof that she is in violation of immigration laws?
DHS responded by asking for more information, which WDRB provided. WDRB is still waiting for a response.
Kulkarni founded the New Americans Initiative, which is an organization that raises funds to help immigrants fight their immigration cases.
The family's ultimate goal is to first ensure that Bondonga is not transferred to a detention center that is further away, because that would make it harder for her to communicate with her loved ones and her lawyers.
Secondly, they said they want to do everything they can to get her back home.
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