Update on Jonatan 5/14

Today marks two months since Jonatan was returned home to us.

That morning is seared in my memory. March 14, 7:30 a.m.—a phone call saying he was being released from a local jail in Virginia, hours away from Baltimore. It was chaotic, disorienting. But we had the ability to pick him up and bring him home. I'm grateful for that privilege.

The last two months have been hard. We've been trying to return to normal, but normal keeps getting interrupted by attorney meetings, court dates, legal petitions, and fees. Always the fees.

People ask if he's okay now. He's home. But home doesn't erase what happened. His detainment was only three weeks. That's all it took to leave a scar that will never fully close. The psychological trauma, the emotional wreckage, the financial toll—they follow us like shadows. They will follow him for the rest of his life.

Please don't look away.

Watch for ICE in your own communities. Learn the signs. Find your local ICE out groups. Join neighborhood networks that track their movements. Because the only reason Jonatan is here with me right now is that people showed up. People paid attention. People refused to let him disappear.

His asylum hearing is early August. The fight isn't over. Not even close. We will work every day between now and then to solidify his place here—with me, with the people who love him, with the life we are still trying to build.

To every single person who sent a message, shared a post, donated, prayed, cried with us, or simply sat in the silence and held space for our fear: I have read every word. Many nights, I've sobbed over your kindness. You reminded us that we are not alone. And that is something I will never be able to repay.

Thank you. From the bottom of both our broken, grateful hearts.

— Kirby & Jonatan