South African Wisconsin State Patrol trooper released from ICE custody after brief detention

ICE released Carel Aaron Van Der Merwe, a 21-year-old South African trooper with the Wisconsin State Patrol, on Friday following his detention at Dane County Regional Airport. The trooper was arrested after passing through security on Thursday, handcuffed, shackled and taken to Dodge County Jail. He was released under supervisory conditions that require periodic check-ins with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and may include electronic monitoring via a phone app, according to his attorney, Marc Christopher, who told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

"I just told him I want him to get back, get reacclimated, just get settled because I know he’s gone through a very dramatic experience," Christopher said. The Department of Homeland Security stated that Van Der Merwe entered the United States in March 2019 with a visitor’s visa that expired in September 2019 and has remained in the country beyond that period. A DHS spokesperson added that work authorization or a pending application does not provide legal status. "He entered the country in March 2019 with legal permission to stay until September 2019. In defiance of our nation’s laws, he overstayed his admission," the spokesperson said. Christopher described the arrest as unexpected and criticized the action as an indiscriminate approach to immigration enforcement. "I almost can’t believe that they are so brazen as to do this. But they are. There’s no reason for them to detain him other than to indiscriminately pick up as many people as they can," he said. The family has been awaiting a decision on an asylum application that was filed on the basis of alleged persecution, including an incident in which a family member was attacked.