Help Vic Bud’s Family Survive, Relocate, and Rebuild as He Faces Deportation

Dear friends, family, and community,

We are reaching out to you in a moment of complete heartbreak and desperation. After exhausting every single dollar we had, emptying our savings, and fighting with everything we had to keep our family together, my husband, Vic Bud, is currently held in ICE custody at the Northlake Detention Center and will be deported to Romania. Our family has been completely torn apart. The financial and emotional toll of this long, grueling legal battle has left us entirely depleted. We poured everything into trying to keep Vic home, and now we are facing the hard reality of having nothing left to cover our basic survival, let alone the steps required to ensure our family can stay together.

Our Story: 23 Years Together Shattered

Vic is not just my husband; he is my soulmate. We have been together for 23 years, building a life together ever since we were teenagers. He has lived in the United States since 1987, making this country his home for nearly four decades.

Everyone who knows Vic knows him as a deeply honest, incredibly hard worker who lived entirely for his family. Above all else, he is a fiercely loving father. He did everything to provide a safe, happy life for our children, and his absence leaves a void in our home that can never be filled.

The Hidden Truth: How ICE Deportation Destroys American Citizens

We are sharing our story because the public needs to know the truth about how immigration enforcement and current laws actually affect AMERICAN citizens.I am an American citizen, and all five of our children are proud, natural-born American citizens. Yet, our own government’s system has completely shattered our lives. People often do not realize that when a father faces deportation, it is the American wives and children left behind who pay the heaviest price.

Our Financial Crisis: A Stay-at-Home Mom Left Without Support

As a stay-at-home mother, my full-time job has always been raising, nurturing, and caring for our five children. Vic has always been our family’s sole breadwinner and our primary source of income. He worked endlessly so that I could be home to raise our family.Now that he is locked away in a detention center awaiting deportation, we are left completely stranded. I cannot financially support our five children alone. Without his income, we have no way to pay our monthly rent, keep the lights on, or buy groceries. We have been stripped of our financial stability overnight, and we absolutely need to be reunited because surviving alone under these conditions is impossible.

Because of these harsh laws, five innocent American children—Gisele (14), Giana (13), Genevie (8), Roman (5), and baby Gemma (2)—have just had their loving father ripped away from them. Our government has given us an impossible, heart-wrenching choice: force five American children to grow up without their father, or force them to leave their schools, their friends, and the only home country they have ever known to move across the world just to be a family. This is the cruel hardship that so many families like ours face in silence every single day.

The Reality We Face Right Now

With Vic stuck in Northlake Detention Center under a final order of deportation, our children have lost their protector, their rock, and our family's primary financial stability. Right now, I am struggling alone to manage the immediate daily expenses of keeping a roof over our children's heads and keeping them fed. We desperately need help covering:

Our Path Forward: An Urgent Relocation and Rebuilding in Romania

We refuse to let these laws keep our family permanently separated. Our children are deeply heartbroken and miss their father every single second; they need their dad, and we cannot live apart. Because he will be deported to Romania, our absolute priority is to prepare to move our entire family there as quickly as humanly possible so our kids can finally regain their sense of security and stop suffering from the overwhelming sadness of missing him.

However, because our finances were completely drained by the legal system, we are starting entirely from scratch. We cannot afford the baseline costs of an international relocation, let alone the cost of establishing a new life. Your urgent donations will go directly toward the vital steps needed to get us there and help us rebuild from the ground up:

How You Can Support Us

We know that times are tough for many, and asking for help is incredibly difficult. If you are able to contribute financially, no amount is too small. By supporting us, you are not only helping us survive, but you are helping us fight back against a system that forces American children into exile and giving five innocent kids a chance at a normal, secure life again.

If you cannot donate at this time, you can still help immensely by sharing our link with your network, your community groups, or on your social media channels to help spread the word about what is happening to families like ours.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for standing by us, for your kindness, and for helping us bridge the distance to bring our family back together.

With deep gratitude,

The Bud Family

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Are you and the children American citizens?

• Yes. I am an American citizen, and all five of our children—Gisele (14), Giana (13), Genevie (8), Roman (5), and Gemma (2)—are proud, natural-born United States citizens. Vic is the only non-citizen in our immediate family, which is why this system hits our American household so hard.

What is Vic’s current status and where is he located?

• Vic is currently held in ICE custody at the Northlake Detention Center and has been issued a final order stating he will be deported to Romania. He has lived, worked, and built his life in the United States since 1987. He has spent nearly four decades being a law-abiding, hard-working member of his community, and we have been together as a couple for 23 years since we were teenagers.

Why are you moving the children to Romania instead of staying in the US?

• We are facing an impossible choice that no American family should ever have to make. As a stay-at-home mom, I am completely unable to financially support our five children alone without Vic's income. Vic has always been our primary source of income and our family's rock. We refuse to let our five young children grow up permanently separated from their father. Since he will be deported to Romania, moving there is our only option to ensure our family stays unified so our children can have their father's daily love, presence, and protection.

Why is there such an urgent timeline for this fundraiser?

• Every single day he sits inside the detention center waiting to be sent away is causing immense emotional trauma to our children. They are deeply saddened by this separation and miss their father significantly. We need to prepare our passports and travel funds as quickly as possible to restore their sense of safety, bring back their security, and end the daily heartbreak they are experiencing.

What happened to your previous funds?

• We spent every single penny of our life savings, emptied our accounts, and went into deep financial strain trying to cover the massive legal fees, immigration attorney retainers, and court costs required to fight his case. We fought with everything we had to keep him here, leaving us completely drained while he faces deportation.

Exactly how will the donation money be used?

• Because we have no savings left and no current source of income, 100% of the funds raised will go toward baseline survival, rapid relocation, and establishing our new life:

How can I help if I am unable to donate money?

• Sharing our link is just as powerful as a financial donation. You can help us immensely by posting this GoFundMe page on your Facebook, Instagram, or family WhatsApp groups. Spreading our story also helps expose the truth of how current enforcement policies break apart everyday American families.