ICE arrest of 21-year-old South African Wisconsin state trooper at airport, Digi Mart USA News: The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency detained a Wisconsin state trooper at an airport in the United States.
Carel Aaron Van Der Merwe, an asylum applicant from South Africa with valid federal work authorization, was arrested by ICE while waiting to board a domestic flight.
According to a statement from the law firm Christopher & De Leon, published Thursday and cited by NBC News, the trooper is currently being held in Juneau, Wisconsin. The attorneys said Van Der Merwe tried to explain that he had a valid work permit and a pending asylum application, but the ICE agents said they did not care, handcuffed him, and transported him to an immigrant detention center.
The 21-year-old trooper arrived in the country legally as a child from South Africa and is included in his father’s asylum application. He had also been working as a Wisconsin state trooper for nearly a year.
ICE arrested Van Der Merwe during a targeted enforcement operation at Dane County Regional Airport in Madison, Wisconsin, on Thursday, according to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
“For the record: a work authorization or a pending application does not confer legal status in the United States,” a DHS spokesperson said. The spokesperson stated in the same statement: “He entered the country in March 2019 with legal permission to remain until September 2019.
In violation of our nation’s laws, he remained in the country beyond the permitted period. This undocumented immigrant will receive due process and will remain in ICE custody pending deportation proceedings.”
“This administration is working diligently to ensure that foreign nationals who are illegally in our country can no longer fly unless it is to voluntarily depart,” the spokesperson said.
