Wisconsin State Trooper detained by ICE

A Wisconsin State Trooper who was born in South Africa and came to the United States as a teenager will be released from federal custody after being detained by federal immigration authorities.

Carel Van Der Merwe, 21, has been a Wisconsin State Trooper since 2025joining the department along with 26 other new recruits in a graduation celebration presided over by Gov. Tony Evers.

Immigration attorney Marc Christopher said Van Der Merwe works out of the Tomah office and lives in Onalaska.

According to Christopher, Van Der Merwe came to the country with his family in 2019 and filed for asylum. The attorney said he is included on his father’s pending asylum application and holds federal work authorization bearing an expiration date in 2030.

Van Der Merwe was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers Thursday at the Dane County Regional Airport. He’s being held at the Dodge Detention Facility in Dodge Countyaccording to an online database.

“When you have somebody who has done everything absolutely correct — they enter the United States lawfully, they lawfully filed their asylum application, they lawfully applied for a work permit, they’re lawfully waiting for their asylum interview — for them to be detained after all of this time is … in my mind, unconscionable,” Christopher said.

A Friday afternoon statement from Republican U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden said he had reached out to Markwayne Mullin, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, about the case.

“The trooper will be released immediately and will be responsible for working with the appropriate authorities to resolve his outstanding immigration paperwork and address his legal status,” the statement said.

Christopher confirmed to WPR that Van Der Merwe is being released Friday.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Van Der Merwe was arrested Thursday during a “targeted enforcement operation at the Dane County Regional Airport in Madison, Wisconsin.”

In a Friday email, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said Van Der Merwe came to the United States in March of 2019 “with legal permission to stay until September 2019.”

“In defiance of our nation’s laws, he overstayed his admission,” the spokesperson wrote. “This illegal alien will receive due process and remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.”

“To be clear: work authorization does not confer legal status in the United States,” the spokesperson added.

But, Christopher said, “It is absolutely at the discretion of ICE, is whether or not to detain people like this.”

Christopher said he met with Van Der Merwe Thursday evening. He’s attempting to get him released on bond, a process he said could take a few weeks.

He said he also talked with Van Der Merwe’s father and that the family is in “disbelief.”

“I don’t know that anybody would be able to logically explain why they would want to detain a person like this,” Christopher said.

The Trump administration has focused the asylum system on helping white South Africans. Of people the 16,292 people admitted into the United States under asylum rules this year, all but five were white South Africans, according to Axios.

And the administration said it would focus on white South Africans claims in the coming year, planning to admit another  17,500 additional White Afrikaners from South Africa as refugees over the next 12 months, according to CBS News.

In a Friday afternoon email, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation Office of Public Affairs said the Wisconsin Department of Transporation and the Division of State Patrol “are aware of the situation involving Trooper Carel Van Der Merwe.”

“The trooper has been employed with State Patrol since July 13, 2025,” the email said.