Bring Anyelo Home: Immigration Battle

Imagine this: you're one month away from celebrating 6 months of marriage to the love of your life. You're in the honeymoon phase. You're planning your life together. Things are great. And then, thinking that you're doing everything right, you walk out of an immigration hearing just to have your spouse immediately detained without any explanation.

That's what happened to me and my husband on Friday, May 23, 2025.

My husband Anyelo, with no criminal history either in his home country or here, came to the United States seeking asylum, a better life. We met several months after his arrival, fell in love, and after getting married, submitted an I-130 Petition for Alien Relative (application for a spousal visa).

My husband attended all of his check-ins and asylum hearings as required by law. Then, thinking we were almost through with the asylum process, the government lawyer in the courtroom asked for the case to be dismissed. My husband requested time before responding to the motion. Initially, the judge gave him 10 days, but with the holiday weekend, my husband requested a little more time than that. The judge said up to June 9th, a total of 16 days, to decide whether to accept the motion dismissing the case or to appeal and continue his argument for asylum on June 27th.

As soon as we walked out of the courtroom, before we could even talk about anything that happened, we were separated by ICE. As I was taken away from him around the corner, I heard the handcuffs. But as if that wasn't enough, within an hour, they released him, essentially putting him on parole in which he would have to wear an ankle tracker. I was both relieved and angry. I spent all morning crying in the immigration building, already traumatized by the sudden seizure of my husband, then the sudden release, and their decision that he had to be tracked despite having attended every check-in and court date he was given. Hours went by, and he was called back for "more paperwork". He never came back out. After half an hour of "paperwork", an officer came out and took me aside, telling me he was once again detained. I was not given a reason for his detention. All they told me was "circumstances changed" and that he could be released on bond (though they didn't tell me how much, or how to pay it). They gave me a Google search printout of the detention center he was taken to, more than 5 hours away.

Every interaction after that, ICE officers told me that essentially the case has been dismissed unless my husband responds to the judge within 10 days, leaving me wondering what happened to the extension the judge gave, what "circumstances" changed that they had to fully detain him.

I scrambled contacting lawyers, but with the overburden on nonprofits and the 3 day Memorial Day weekend, I was only able to get a few responses, and could only schedule appointments with two private attorneys.

Between living in the San Francisco Bay Area, general inflation, and my meager salary, I know I will need help paying for everything. My husband is being treated like a criminal, and ICE has given me no information. I have spent the last two days making phone calls and doing my own research. It was by my own intense search that I was able to find a way to send monitored messages to my husband, which cost us $.25 each message. I cannot call him directly, but he can call me at a cost, which I have to deposit into his account. We can only video call at a cost of $.21 per minute. I have not been told how much the bond for release will be, but research says it could be around $5000. The law firms I have appointments set up with cost between $300 and $700 per meeting.

Please help me with these extra burdens, help me be reunited with my husband. Thank you for reading our story.