A Mother’s Hope to Keep Her Family Together

Two weeks ago, we went to an immigration interview as a family. I stayed in the waiting area with our three children while my husband, Aleks, was called inside with our attorney. We believed it would be a simple conversation and just another step in a long process we had been waiting through for years.

My name is Kate. In 2016, my husband Aleks, our daughter Maria, and I came to the United States legally, with gratitude and hope for a safe life. Within our first six months, we applied for political asylum and began waiting for an interview.

We waited for almost ten years.

During those years, we built a quiet, modest life. My husband worked every day to support our family in a country that was new and often challenging for us. I stayed home with the children because daycare and childcare were simply too expensive. Over time, our family grew, we welcomed two more little ones. Our home filled with morning routines, evening baths, reading books, heartfelt conversations, bedtime prayers, and all the simple, ordinary moments that slowly turn a place into “home.”

In December 2025, just before Christmas, we finally received notice of our long-awaited interview. After nearly ten years of waiting, we felt relief and hope for the first time in a long while. The first interview was unexpectedly canceled without explanation. A second one was scheduled for mid-January. We hired an experienced immigration attorney and prepared carefully, believing this would finally be the day our future would be decided.

But the interview never happened.

I sat in the waiting area with the children, holding their hands and trying not to show how anxious I was, distracting them with conversation. After some time, our attorney came out. He placed my husband’s chain with a cross into my hand and told me that Aleks had been taken into detention.

I couldn’t and didn’t want to believe what he was saying.

Our children were waiting for their dad to come back and smile at them, as he always did. Instead, I stood there with that small chain in my hand, trying to understand how I would explain to them that their father was not coming home that day.

Now our family is separated, living day by day in fear and uncertainty. Our youngest child asks every evening if Daddy will come home tomorrow. I don’t always know how to answer.

2025 was already a very difficult year for us financially. My husband had just opened a small construction business, something he had worked toward for a long time. The income was slow and unstable, but we were trying to build something steady and create a foundation for our family’s future. Now that he is in detention, the business has essentially come to a halt. I am doing my best to manage everything on my own, even though I have never worked in this field before.

Legal help in our situation is absolutely critical and extremely expensive. The main purpose of this fundraiser is to cover legal expenses. At the same time, I am carrying our loans and basic bills alone. We are incredibly grateful for the people who are helping us with meals, but legal costs and monthly expenses continue to grow every day.

We are not asking for a perfect life. We are asking for a chance to go through this process lawfully and fairly, without losing our family along the way. We want our children to feel safe, supported, and surrounded by love, even as their world has been turned upside down.

Every donation will go toward:

• Immigration attorney and legal fees

• Court and filing costs

• Basic living expenses for our children while we wait for the next steps in our case

If you are able to help, even in a small way, you are helping more than financially. You are helping three children hold on to the hope that their father will come home.

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Update

Aleks remains in detention. We are still waiting for the next steps in the case. Conditions there are far from humane and take a heavy toll on daily life, but he is holding on, and we are doing everything we can to support him from the outside.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone who has already supported our family financially, through kind words, messages, and sharing our story. Your care and support give us strength to keep going during this incredibly difficult time. We are truly grateful to each and every one of you.

With gratitude,

Kate