A Wisconsin State Patrolman who federal immigration agents arrested at an airport Thursday has been released.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents approached Carel Aaron Van Der Merwe, a South African national, as he waited to board a domestic flight, according to his law firm Christopher & De León.
Van Der Merwe, who immigrated to the United States when he was 14, has been waiting seven years for his asylum request to be heard, his lawyers said on social media. In the meantime, he received work authorization, valid until 2030, to serve in Wisconsin law enforcement.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) defended Van Der Merwe’s detention in a statement this week, saying he had overstayed under his 2019 visa. “A work authorization or pending application does not confer legal status in the United States,” an agency spokesperson told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Van Der Merwe’s lawyers rejected that claim, pointing out that another DHS agency, US Citizenship and Immigration Services, “authorized him to work.”
“We don’t even think ICE believes its own statement,” the law firm added.
The agency did not immediately respond to an inquiry into what prompted the state trooper’s release.
In a social media update on Friday, Van Der Merwe’s law firm announced that his client would be released, but subject to electronic monitoring and regular check-ins with immigration authorities.
“His release is good news. But our fight is not over. Carel will still have to defend his immigration case before an immigration judge,” the lawyers wrote.
“USCIS, a DHS agency, authorized Carel to work. He used this authorization to serve and protect Wisconsin communities. ICE, another DHS agency, then arrested him. DHS owes this family more than silence,” they continued.
Video from Van Der Merwe’s graduation ceremony last year showed his badge being pinned by his father in front of the Wisconsin governor.
Van Der Merwe’s family of white South Africans arrived during Donald Trump’s first term, but had good reason to expect they would be granted asylum after Trump returned to power last year and signed an executive order saying the United States would “promote the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees,” based on the false claim that they would “escape government-sponsored racial discrimination” in their country.
In addition to a series of very public, controversial and in some cases deadly ICE raids in several U.S. cities, the Trump administration’s mass deportation program has taken place more stealthily at domestic and international airports. Visa travelers, green card holders and waiting asylum seekers have been arrested in what some experts say is an effort to meet arrest quotas imposed on the agency by the White House.
Van Der Merwe Law Firm has advised non-citizens with unresolved immigration matters to consult immigration lawyers before traveling by air.
“Even if you’ve flown without problems before, don’t assume the same thing will happen now,” they said.
Gn headline
