Background: Demonstrators gather in south Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Jan. 24, 2026, after a man is shot and killed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents earlier that morning, according to officials. (Christian Zander/NurPhoto via AP). Inset: Armelle Bondonga after her release on Oct. 6, 2026 (WHAS/YouTube).
A woman who was jailed by immigration authorities after she showed up for an interview seeking lawful permanent residence must be released, a federal judge in Indiana ruled.
The Trump administration has "not held up its end" in showing that 22-year-old Armelle Bondonga, a citizen of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) who is married to a U.S. citizen, will be sent to her country or even accepted back there, U.S. District Judge Tanya Marie Walton Pratt opined in a five-page order.
Because of the indefinite timeline of Bondonga's detention, Pratt wrote, she "must immediately" be freed from the Clark County jail.
As the jurist for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana recounted, Bondonga entered the U.S. in 2013 "with a tourist visa that was valid through March 9, 2014." She did not leave when the visa expired and "has remained physically present since lawfully entering" as a "non-immigrant visitor."
Over the next decade or so, Bondonga met her now-husband, married him and had a baby boy. According to a GoFundMe set up for her and her family, she "poured herself" into her community in Louisville, Kentucky, and "dedicated countless hours to community service, created space for young people to be heard, and lifted up those around her."
Then, everything changed.
On Nov. 6, 2025, an immigration judge "ordered her removed to DRC," Pratt recalled. Bondonga appealed the order to the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), but her appeal was "summarily dismissed" the following spring. She filed a motion to reconsider with the BIA about a month later, "and that motion is still pending."
In the meantime, in February, Bondonga's husband "applied to change her immigration status," according to Pratt, a Barack Obama appointee.
As part of the process, on Aug. 12, Bondonga "voluntarily appeared" for a scheduled interview with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the fundraiser said. "What the family hoped would be an important step forward instead became a devastating moment: Armelle was taken into ICE custody and detained at the Clark County Jail in Jeffersonville, Indiana."
Pratt, writing on Tuesday, confirmed that Bondonga was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) when she "reported" to the immigration officials. "She has been in ICE custody since her arrest."
Bondonga subsequently petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus, an attempt to appear before a judge "to determine if the person's imprisonment or detention is lawful," as the Legal Information Institute denotes.
She also "filed motions in the immigration court to stay her removal and reopen her removal case so she may apply for adjustment of status," the judge added, though "[n]othing in the record reflects that any of these motions have been resolved."
Pratt added that the woman pointed to U.S. Supreme Court precedent that determined immigration officials cannot indefinitely hold someone — save for a "special justification" if their removal is "no longer reasonably foreseeable."
The judge elaborated:
Bondonga provides specific reasons to find that she is unlikely to be removed in the reasonably foreseeable future. She correctly notes that the record does not include a removal date, a travel document, documentation of any efforts to coordinate removal with the DRC, or even a request from the United States to the DRC to accept Bondonga. Meanwhile, Bondonga notes that she has initiated proceedings to reopen her removal case and challenge her removal in immigration court.
"For their part, the Respondents offer no evidence or even argument to demonstrate that Bondonga is likely to be removed in the reasonably foreseeable future," the judge added. She said that Bondonga "has held up her end" and "offered multiple reasons why removal is unlikely to occur imminently" while the government "has not held up its end" in "responding with evidence that removal in the reasonably foreseeable future is significantly likely."
For those reasons, Pratt ordered that Bondonga be removed from custody and gave immigration officials — including Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin — two days to confirm that they did.
They followed through, with Louisville ABC affiliate WHAS capturing the moment Bondonga and her family appeared on stage before a crowd cheering "welcome home."
"Thank you all," she responded.
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