Help Bring Joytu Home to His Wife and Future

Joytu came to the U.S. legally to pursue his education, but after ICE detention and forced separation from his U.S. citizen wife, he now urgently needs help with legal and immigration costs to come home.

My name is Marie Eledge. After retiring from State Farm, I found a wonderful community through pickleball. That’s where I met Joytu Chowdhury. What started as a casual friendship quickly grew into admiration for the kind of person Joytu is kind, humble, hardworking, and full of hope for the future. He is one of the most genuine young men I have ever known and he is someone who truly cares about others. This past fall Joytu was a junior at Illinois Wesleyan University, majoring in Finance with a minor in Computer Science, working hard to build a better life through education.

Joytu came to the United States legally on an F-1 student visa to pursue that dream. When he transferred schools, he followed the proper steps to update his school of record and was allowed to enroll in classes at IWU while that process was underway.

Then, on December 3, everything changed.

Joytu was unexpectedly taken into ICE custody and transferred to an immigration detention facility. For a young man who came here legally and was doing everything he could to follow the rules, this was devastating. He was suddenly pulled away from his education, his life here, and the future he had worked so hard to create.

Most heartbreaking of all, Joytu is married to a U.S. citizen, and his wife is still here in Bloomington-Normal, Illinois. They are now enduring an incredibly painful separation while fighting to reunite and continue their life together. At the advice of his attorney, Joytu made the difficult decision to self-deport to Bangladesh in February so he could escape the harsh conditions of detention and continue fighting his immigration case from there.

Now he is trying to survive in Bangladesh, where ongoing political turmoil has made daily life unstable and work extremely difficult to find. In the middle of this uncertainty, he is doing everything he can to stay hopeful, stay afloat, and keep moving forward.

Why We’re Asking for Help - Joytu is working with immigration legal counsel, but the cost is overwhelming.

• The first steps of this process — including attorney fees and visa petition filing fees — are already nearly $10,000

• Once Joytu reaches the U.S. consulate stage, there will be additional filing costs, administrative fees, and more attorney fees

These expenses are not optional. They are the necessary first steps to give Joytu a fair chance to resolve his immigration case and come home to his wife.

Another Way to Help

There is another meaningful way to support Joytu. He is available for remote freelance work and can support himself through digital projects such as Data analysis; Website creation, updates, and maintenance; Word processing and document formatting; Newsletter creation; Excel spreadsheets; and PowerPoint presentations. Joytu is a quick learner, and he is ready to take on work.

If you or someone you know can offer remote work, that opportunity could make a real difference in helping him survive while he fights his way back.

If you feel led to help, please donate, share this page, and keep Joytu in your prayers. Every gift, no matter the size, matters.

Every share helps widen the circle of support. Every act of kindness brings him one step closer to home.

Thank you for standing with Joytu during one of the most difficult chapters of his life. Your compassion, generosity, and willingness to help mean more than words can say.

With gratitude,

Marie Eledge