ICE releases detained Wisconsin State Trooper

Federal immigration authorities have released a 21-year-old Wisconsin State Patrol trooper from Onalaska who was detained at an airport last week. Carel Aaron Van Der Merwe, who was born in South Africa and works out of Tomah, was brought to the United States as a child legally. After arriving in the country, his parents waited seven years for an asylum interview, according to a press release issued by the law firm Christopher & De Leon. The firm said that Van Der Merwe was included on his father’s asylum application and holds a federal work authorization which expires in 2030. 

Van Der Merwe was released after U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden contacted DHS and intervened on the state trooper’s behalf. A spokesperson for Van Orden told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that appropriate authorities will now work to resolve Van Der Merwe’s immigration paperwork and legal status. 

Attorney Marc Christopher said that while Van Der Merwe and his family are happy he was released, he should not have been detained and that it should not have required congressional intervention to resolve the matter. 

Christopher called on lawmakers to confront what he called “inhumane and wasteful detention practices and the failure of our immigration system,” by ICE under the Trump administration, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

“Wisconsin trusted him to protect the public,” the law firm said in a statement after Van Der Merwe was arrested. “Now, ICE is holding him in immigration detention in Dodge County.”

Van Der Merwe joined the Wisconsin State Patrol because his pending immigration status prevented him from joining the military, according to his lawyers. The Wisconsin Department of Transportation, which oversees the State Patrol, confirmed in a statement to the Examiner that it was “aware of the situation” involving Van Der Merwe. He has worked with the department since July 2025. 

DOT did not comment on the circumstances of Van Der Merwe’s hiring, how his arrest affected his colleagues and community, or whether ICE or the Department of Homeland Security communicated with the State Patrol before or after arresting Van Der Merwe.

The statement from his attorneys said  that Van Der Merwe was detained as he prepared to board a domestic flight. He tried to explain that he had a valid work permit pending an asylum claim, but “according to Van Der Merwe the officers said they did not care, placed him in handcuffs and shackles, and transported him to immigration detention in Dodge County. ICE says it is going after people who break the law. Here, it has detained someone whose job it is to uphold it.”

Christopher said in a statement that ICE did not have to detain Van Der Merwe. “He is neither a threat nor a flight risk,” he said. “He has a home, a career, and a community he serves. How does putting him behind bars make Wisconsin safer?”

A DHS spokesperson confirmed that Van Der Merwe was taken into ICE custody on Nov. 5. Calling him “an illegal alien from South Africa,” the spokesperson said that the arrest was part of a targeted operation at the Dane County Regional Airport in Madison. Contrary to his attorneys’ statement, DHS said that Van Der Merwe “entered the country in March 2019 with legal permission to stay until September 2019.” 

The spokesperson added that, “in defiance of our nation’s laws, he overstayed his admission. This illegal alien will receive due process and remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.” DHS added that, “work authorization or a pending application do not confer legal status in the U.S.” The agency stated that  “DHS reversed the horrendous Biden-era policy that allowed aliens in our country illegally to jet around our country. Under President Trump, DHS will no longer tolerate this. This administration is working diligently to ensure that aliens in our country illegally can no longer fly unless it is out of our country to self-deport.” 

Christopher called the government’s claims “absurd and ridiculous,” asserting that Van Der Merwe and his family were here lawfully and waiting for immigration to process their asylum claim, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

Van Der Merwe’s arrest came just weeks after an Oshkosh middle school teacher who was raised in Costa Rica was detained and deported by ICE. The teacher, Wendy Mendez,  was recognized in 2025 as an employee of the year by her school district. 

As a white South African, Van Der Merwe is part of a group that has received favorable treatment from the Trump administration.

In 2027, the Trump administration is limiting the number of refugees it admits to the United States to   17,500 people, most of whom will be white South Africans fleeing what they say is persecution under the Black majority government of their country. Even as his administration has targeted immigrants from Latin America for deportation, President Trump welcomed white South African farmers and falsely claimed that white South Africans — the descendants of Dutch and French colonialists known as Afrikaners  — were the victims of genocide. 

Van Der Merwe’s family arrived in the U.S. during Trump’s first term, when he was 14 years old. As they were awaiting processing of their asylum claim, Trump signed an executive order saying the U.S. would “promote the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees” based on the claim that they faced anti-white racial discrimination. 

Van Der Merwe graduated from the Wisconsin State Patrol academy in 2025, as Gov. Tony Evers looked on. 

More reports of immigration arrests at airports stem from increased collaboration between the Transportation Security Administration and ICE, according to CBS News. TSA has been identifying noncitizen travelers who are “easy targets” for federal agents seeking to meet high quotas for immigration arrests.