By Norman Seawright
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LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (WLKY) — Louisville leaders and community members are speaking out after the detention of Armelle Bondonga, a 21-year-old immigrant from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who became integral to her community.
Bondonga was detained last week while at her final green card hearing with her husband, who is an American citizen.
Kentucky state Rep. Nima Kulkarni and Sadiqa Reynolds are part of Bondonga’s legal team. They and Bondonga’s former Waggener High School teacher, Ryan Davis, said the case has hit close to home.
“When I was talking to her with her attorneys — barely talking about herself, talking always about her family and her community and about the other women she was detained with and how she could help them,” Kulkarni said.
“She’s just really positive. You can’t, as a mother, you have to imagine every day that you’re going to be reunited with your child, that you’re going to be reunited with your husband,” Reynolds said.
“Everything inside of me just feels gutted knowing the pain that the separation is causing for her family, for her, for our whole community,” Davis said.
Bondonga is known for co-founding Future Ancestors, which helps develop leadership in Louisville-area youth.
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson provided a statement about Bondonga’s detention:
“On August 12, 2026, ICE arrested Armelle Bondonga, an illegal alien from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“Bondongo [sic] legally entered our country on September 10, 2013, on a visa that was set to expire on March 9, 2014. She overstayed her welcome in violation of our nation’s immigration laws, and under the Obama administration began accruing more than a decade’s worth of unlawful presence in the United States. On November 6, 2025, she was given a final order of removal by an immigration judge. She received due process.
“Being in detention is a choice. We encourage all illegal aliens to take control of their departure with the CBP Home App. The United States is offering illegal aliens $2,600 and a free flight to self-deport now. We encourage every person here illegally to take advantage of this offer and reserve the chance to come back to the U.S. the right legal way to live the American dream. If not, you will be arrested and deported without a chance to return.”
Her attorney, Arianit Osmani, sent a statement in response:
Yes, there is a final order of removal. However, that does not tell the entire story.
Armelle was included as a derivative in her father’s asylum proceedings, which began when she was a child. The family attempted to appeal the Immigration Judge’s decision, but the BIA dismissed the appeal as untimely without reaching the merits of the underlying asylum claims. A Motion to Reconsider that decision, which includes Armelle, remains pending.
Separately, Armelle’s circumstances have fundamentally changed. She is married to a U.S. citizen, they have a young U.S.-citizen child, and her husband has filed an I-130 petition on her behalf. She is pursuing an independent marriage-based path toward lawful permanent residence that is separate from her family’s prior asylum claim.
We also do not believe Armelle presents a flight risk. She has an established home and family here, including her husband and young child, and her own conduct demonstrates her willingness to participate in the immigration process. She voluntarily appeared for her scheduled USCIS interview, where she was taken into custody.
Our position is that Armelle should not be removed before her pending marriage petition and the significant legal issues in her case have an opportunity to be meaningfully considered. Removal is irreversible, and we are pursuing the available legal remedies to prevent that from occurring prematurely.
Kulkarni and Louisville Metro Council member Shameka Parrish-Wright said her detention never should have happened.
“It is beyond inhumane to hold a person like that under these circumstances, given the fact that she was almost, almost on the very last step to becoming a permanent resident,” Kulkarni said.
“For someone that’s so deep into the pathway to citizenship and to and has been on this record of doing everything right and came over here as a young girl. I don’t think that that is the best way to use those resources,” Parrish-Wright said.
Bondonga’s husband, Terrance Bradshaw, thanked the community for their support in a statement of his own:
First and foremost, I want to say how deeply grateful I am for every bit of support Armelle and I have received — especially for our son. To everyone who has spoken up, shared a post, prayed, or reached out: I truly appreciate you.
Our goal is simple: to get Armelle back home to me, and even more importantly, to our 19-month-old son. 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.
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.
I felt completely powerless kissing my wife goodbye, not knowing when I would see her next. Wheeling our son out of that building in his stroller without his mom is a feeling no human should ever have to endure. We left feeling trapped, betrayed, lost, and uncertain of what lies ahead for our family.
I truly hope this brings light to Armelle’s case and reaches a judge who is genuinely fair and just. Armelle deserves to feel welcomed in the country, city, and community she has poured so much of her heart into. Thank you all. Please help us bring Armelle home.
Reynolds said the moment may reflect American society, while Davis said the support shows what Bondonga means to her community.
“We quote Anne Frank, and we think about all of these people and the trauma that they lived through. And who would you have been in that moment?” Reynolds said.
“I think it’s all a reflection of that innate, just sense of care and responsibility that she has that she just brings out in other people,” Davis said.
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