Armelle Bondonga Bradshaw said she felt betrayed when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained her on Aug. 12.
ICE agents took Armelle into custody when she and her husband Terrance voluntarily appeared for what was supposed to be a final interview for Armelle's marriage-based green card. After 55 days in detention, Judge Tanya Walton Pratt ordered Armelle to be released. The government failed to meet its burden of proof to justify keeping her detained. She was being kept unnecessarily separated from her family.
I sat in Armelle and Terrance's living room once again. The last time I visited their home, I listened to her distraught husband tell me their love story. This time, I listened to Armelle while her son toddled around, happy to be near his mama again.
"I grew up here, you know?" Armelle said. She arrived in the United States from the Democratic Republic of the Congo with her family when she was just 8 years old. As a high schooler, Armelle helped found an organization called the Future Ancestors, raising money for nonprofit organizations in Kentucky while mentoring young people and working alongside her high school teacher. Armelle went on to graduate college, get married and start a family. She even returned to her high school as a substitute teacher.
As her immigration case moved through America's complicated system, Armelle reached what should have been the final step toward her green card. Instead, ICE detained her. So yeah, Armelle felt betrayed. Not by her community, but by the United States government.
Her community mourned her absence. People sent letters to Armelle in jail, delivered meals to her husband and son and raised money for her legal fees. Not every ICE detainee has such support. In that regard, Armelle knew how fortunate she was to have a community fighting for her.
"The only thing I had to worry about when I was in jail was to keep my head straight," she said. "The community fought for me to come home, and Terrance was fighting for me to have a home to come back to."
Even still, detention was hard. It was loud and cold, and she had no privacy. She had to ration toilet paper and pay for every phone call. After spending her first 48 hours in the "drunk tank," where an inmate taunted her about being deported, Armelle was moved to a pod with other immigrants. There, she felt camaraderie. They prayed together and comforted one another.
It was there that Armelle first met Amina Seck, a Kentucky State University basketball player who was detained at the airport while traveling with her team. They leaned on one another in detention, reminding each other when the day felt particularly dire that "God is good."
Then Armelle and Amina were both moved into the general population jail, though they had not been charged with crimes. Immigration violations are civil, not criminal.
"I sat in jail over paperwork," Armelle said.
But Armelle still believes her detention served a purpose. Without it, the world might not have learned about Amina Seck. Kentucky State had not spoken publicly about its basketball player's situation. Amina was injured and in pain, and she needed surgery. Armelle urged her legal team to help Amina. They did. Even while fighting for her own release, Armelle fought for someone else, too.
Then, 55 days after ICE took Armelle into custody, she heard the words she longed for.
"Bondonga, bag and baggage," The officer said, using a phrase that meant Armelle was being released and should collect her belongings.
"I literally ran," Armelle said. She grabbed her Bible and her three journals and left the rest.
It was Tuesday, Oct. 6, and just like when she was detained, her release came out of nowhere and it happened fast.
Divine timing is a curious thing. Terrance had injured his hand and taken the day off of work, so he was available to drive to the jail when Armelle was released.
Later that same day, Amina Seck's bond was set, and she was released two days later.
I asked Armelle how she was settling in back at home. The first couple of nights were "kind of crazy," she admitted. Someone's touch would jolt her awake, only for her to realize it was her husband or son by her side. After two months of "sleeping with one eye open," it was hard for her to let go of that hypervigilance.
But she feels good. She said, "I'm just ready to get back to, like, life."
Armelle keeps the television off, enjoying the quiet time with her husband and son. She's not venturing out much, either. ICE detained her once when they shouldn't have. "What's not to say I walk across the street and they try to do it again?" she said.
Her journey is not over. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has approved Terrance and Armelle's marriage-based petition, but Armelle still must complete the process to obtain her green card. She is working with her attorneys on next steps.
Detention might have shaken Armelle, but she wants people to know that it did not break her. It has lit a new fire under her to continue advocating for others.
"I was so blessed," she said about the way her community stood up for her.
Armelle went to jail fearing what the government might do to her, but she came home thinking, "How many other people could we help?"
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