Author Archives: WriterBonnieJean

About WriterBonnieJean

Bonnie Jean Feldkamp is a syndicated columnist with Creators Syndicate

Armelle Bondonga Bradshaw Was Detained by ICE. This Is Her Story.

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When ICE detained Armelle Bondonga Bradshaw, I knew I wanted to help tell her story. ICE has detained thousands of asylum-seekers in the United States, and every single one of them deserves the opportunity to have their story told. But many are understandably afraid to speak out. Through her lawyers, Armelle has made it clear that she wants her experience to help others. She does not want what she is going through to be in vain.

Well known and deeply loved by her community, Armelle has been a community leader since she was in high school. That has allowed me, even while she remains detained, to talk with the people who know her best. Through their stories, I hope readers can see Armelle not simply as an immigration case, but as a wife, mother, teacher, mentor, friend and community leader whose life has touched many others.

These are the columns I’ve written so far as a result. I will continue to tell Armelle’s story as her case unfolds, and I look forward to the day I get to write about her return home to her family. If you’re looking for ways to support Armelle and her family, visit Bring Armelle Home for the latest information about her case and ways to help.

America Raised Armelle Bondonga. Now It Is Trying to Reject Her.

Published August 28, 2026

On Aug. 12, Armelle and her husband, Terrance Bradshaw, voluntarily appeared for what was supposed to be a final interview in the process of obtaining her marriage-based green card. Instead, ICE agents separated the family and took Armelle into custody.

Armelle did exactly what Americans who favor stricter ICE enforcement say immigrants should do: She followed the law. She showed up, followed the process and did the paperwork. Now she is detained.

Read how Armelle came to the United States and why her family stayed. Read more…

America Raised Armelle Bondonga. Now It Is Trying to Reject Her., by Bonnie Jean Feldkamp
As I write this, Armelle Bondonga Bradshaw has not seen her husband or held her 19-month-old baby in over two weeks. On Aug.

She Followed America’s Immigration Process. ICE Took Her Anyway.

Published September 4, 2026

Armelle Bondonga Bradshaw was nervous walking into her final green card interview, but her husband Terrance assured her that it was all going to be fine. They had done everything the U.S. government had asked of them. ICE detained her anyway.

Read the details of what happened to Armelle that day when she and her husband Terrance went to their immigration interview. Read More…

She Followed America’s Immigration Process. Then ICE Took Her Anyway., by Bonnie Jean Feldkamp
Armelle Bondonga Bradshaw was nervous walking into her final green card interview, but her husband Terrance assured her that it was all going to be fine. They had done everything the U.

When ICE Detains Our Immigrant Neighbors, Our Communities Lose.

Published September 11, 2026

When ICE detains immigrants and asylum-seekers disappear, it doesn’t only affect immigrant families. It’s naive to think we don’t lose anything collectively when we remove people from our communities. If immigration doesn’t touch your family directly, I challenge you to look around.

We talk about immigrants as though they are people on the other side of some political argument. But they’re not. They’re a vital part of our daily lives.

Take a step back and look at the bigger picture. How do immigrants affect our communities? This column has it by the numbers. Read More…

When Our Immigrant Neighbors Disappear, Our Communities Lose, by Bonnie Jean Feldkamp
A man who worked in the cafeteria at my husband’s workplace disappeared. My husband talked to him each time he stopped in for lunch.

These columns about ICE detaining Armelle Bondonga publish in newspapers across the United States. From Maui to Virginia, Americans have read Armelle’s story.

Want to help Armelle?

If you’re looking for ways to support Armelle and her family, visit Bring Armelle Home for information about her case and ways to help.

Armelle’s story is still unfolding, and I’ll keep following it.

I’ll add new columns here as they publish. If you’d like to stay connected, subscribe to my newsletter or follow me on social media.

Why Your Truth Matters in the Age of Hate

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April 18 is National Columnists Day. Because of this, I want to hold space for the writer in all of us. Don’t believe we are all writers? Just look at social media.

Gone are the days when opinions were sequestered to dinner tables or written in letters to the editor. Public opinions are no longer reserved for professional newspaper columnists and television pundits. Now, everyday community members can write or record their opinions, thoughts and feelings in a blog, for a podcast or on social media.

We are all commentators. That’s what I write about this week, with insights learned from last weekend’s Virtual Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop. I hope you’ll read and share.

the photo is my writing spot.

Why Your Truth Matters in the Age of Hate, by Bonnie Jean Feldkamp
April 18 is National Columnists Day. Because of this, I want to hold space for the writer in all of us.

Civil Rights Leader Mattie Jones: ‘You Have To Set Yourself Free’

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Mattie Jones turned 92 at the end of March. Friends, family, state senators and our U.S. congressman filled the First Congregational Methodist Church to celebrate her. I first met Mattie Jones a year ago when she spoke to a racial justice class designed for white allies. Jones is a civil rights icon in Louisville, Kentucky.

At the end of her talk, I introduced myself as she was about to schedule an Uber to get home. I asked if I could drive her instead. She said yes. For the next 30 minutes, I got to soak in more of her story. I will treasure that drive always. Now, as we remember Martin Luther King’s assassination on April 4, 1968, I want to share Jones’ story with you.

Read more at the link below

Civil Rights Leader Mattie Jones: ‘You Have To Set Yourself Free’, by Bonnie Jean Feldkamp
Mattie Jones turned 92 at the end of March. Friends, family, state senators and our U.

I am the mother I am today because I chose an abortion at 19

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I wrote this for Mother’s Day because of how the leak happened just days before the holiday. As we anticipate the Supreme Court’s dismantling of Roe vs. Wade and severely limiting abortion access, I want to share it here and hope you will all read and share my abortion story.

For a pregnant person without financial means, abortion costs are already a hardship. My father threw me out of the house shortly after my high school graduation. It was 1993, and I lived in a northern Kentucky suburb of Cincinnati. 

I’m the mom I am today because I chose an abortion at 19 | Opinion

Pregnancy isn’t easy and parenting is hard. But so is an abortion. It’s not an easy way out. Or selfish. My years of therapy to recover show that.

Learn more about Bonnie Jean HERE

Finding Gratitude in the Little Gifts of Online Learning

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I hope you’ll read the full column linked below. But here’s an excerpt:

“Remote learning is a gift beyond keeping kids safe. It’s a gift to the children to do something out of the ordinary. My son doesn’t have to wear his uniform shirt and he can see the big smiles of his teacher and his classmates since masks aren’t needed. It’s definitely a gift for me to be able to witness some of my child’s learning. The pandemic has prevented me from volunteering in his classroom and meeting his school friends.”

Finding Gratitude in the Little Gifts of Online Learning, by Bonnie Jean Feldkamp
The omicron variant of COVID-19 has surged to the point that many school districts are back to remote learning. When the transition was announced in my son’s school, I felt a rush of relief.

Read more from Bonnie HERE and HERE

Let’s Talk About Bruno – Lessons From Disney’s ‘Encanto’

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“Another thing the movie does well is demonstrate how as a culture we struggle to show up for mental health issues. The main character, Mirabel, is the one person in the family who does not have a magical gift when even the house she lives in is magical (warning, spoiler alerts ahead).”

Read the column linked below

Let’s Talk About Bruno – Lessons From Disney’s ‘Encanto’, by Bonnie Jean Feldkamp
My son could not wait to see the new Disney movie

Read more of Bonnie Jean’s columns HERE

That One Night When My Nashville Dreams Came True

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It’s a new year with so many fresh intentions, resolutions and goals being set so for this week’s column I decided to write about dreams come true. This memory makes me smile and I think we could all use a smile right about now. And yes, they used a photo of me from that night. Red eyes and all.


“Mine was an unoriginal dream for Nashville. Just ask the souvenir shopkeeper, and yep, she’s a songwriter, too. I arrived by myself, collecting phone numbers, CDs and quite possibly a contact high along the way. I left with a feeling of camaraderie with other dream-seekers who expressed themselves through words and music.”

Read the full column at the link below and then keep scrolling to listen to the two cheesy originals I performed while I was there.

That One Night When My Nashville Dreams Came True, by Bonnie Jean Feldkamp
The year was 2008, and after contending with a snowstorm I finally made it to the airport for my flight. Work had scheduled me for compliance training in Nashville, Tennessee, and I wanted to spend some time with my guitar while I was there.

The songs I played and recorded while in Nashville

Foster Kindness, Identify Solutions and Spread Joy in 2022

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“One of the perks of being a columnist and working as an opinion editor is the email I get. I receive direct responses to what I’ve written as well as letters to the editor about issues of the day and op-eds from the community at large. I say this is a perk because I do not exist in an echo chamber or some sort of political vacuum. Because of this, I read kindness from all sides and perspectives. I also see meanness from all sides. It’s difficult to maintain an us-versus-them attitude when I have the opportunity to witness a melting pot of humanity right here in my inbox.”

I hope you’ll read the full column in the link below.

Foster Kindness, Identify Solutions and Spread Joy in 2022, by Bonnie Jean Feldkamp
On New Year’s Eve, when I was a kid, at the stroke of midnight we would run outside and bang pots and pans with a wooden spoon to ring in the new year. Those were the modest homemade noisemakers of our small Kentucky town.

if you missed my column about why we shouldn’t give Santa so much credit for gifts I hope you’ll read below.

Why Parents Shouldn’t Rely on Santa for Big Christmas Gifts, by Bonnie Jean Feldkamp
Between the breaking news from the tornadic devastation in the Midwest, I worked on Christmas crafts with my kindergartner. The juxtaposition of hardship and the holidays reminded me of Christmastime with my daughter when she was young.

Family, and Country, Divided

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This was a hard column to write

This week’s column was really hard to write which means I had to do it. Plus, I’m fairly certain, I’m not alone. I hope you’ll read this one.

“That’s the hardest part. When it comes to hashing it out so we can be siblings again, I’m just not worth it to him. Cutting me out of his life and moving forward was his better option. I don’t think he likes the person I grew up to become and perhaps he prefers the echo chamber that like-minded people can provide.”

Family, and Country, Divided, by Bonnie Jean Feldkamp
My brother is older than me and when I was in high school, he worked second shift. I’d stay up waiting for him to get home and we’d work on jigsaw puzzles on the floor of his bedroom late into the night.

Read more from Bonnie Jean HERE and HERE.

Why gratitude and service go hand in hand

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As we head into the season on gratitude and giving, I wanted to focus my columns on what it meant for our community and for ourselves. I hope you enjoy reading this four-part series and reflecting on what this means for you. All four columns linked below.

Be the Helper You Need To See in the World

Whether it’s in friendship or community, it’s hard, satisfying work for which nothing is owed and no one has to earn. It’s our humanity. This season of gratitude and joy let’s say “yes” to the work that needs doing and discover the helper within. Read the column HERE.

Volunteering Helps Both the Community and the Volunteer

There’s also some science to the idea of helping oneself by helping others. Snyder’s research showed that those who volunteer long-term don’t stay for altruistic reasons alone; they keep going back because they see the benefits in their own lives. Read the column HERE.

How Cultivating Your Purpose Begins With Knowing Yourself

How we react, overcome and persevere is intrinsically tied to our sense of purpose and it turns out that purpose is tied to how well we know ourselves. Burrow says it this way: “We might start to think of identity as sort of a foundational layer of self-understanding that when you are equipped with a sense of identity, you might stand a chance at figuring out and cultivating your sense of purpose.”

Purpose is a life aim, something that’s always in front of you and never quite finished. It’s different from a goal. Purpose is connected to our well-being and provides stability. Read the column HERE.

It’s OK to gush with gratitude, so let the love flow

The more thank-you cards I wrote the easier it became, and I noticed a shift. Something was happening internally. I stopped using a script and I started just writing in real-time. It shifted from a practice to sending something truly heartfelt. I could feel the gratitude radiating from me as I wrote. A big smile would form on my face, and sometimes I would well up with tears. My gratitude was deep and real, and though I had felt gratitude before, writing it out by hand for my intended recipient helped me feel it in full. Read the whole column HERE