ICE Checked 7 White Men’s IDs At The Airport—Then Arrested A State Trooper

Two ICE agents spent nearly an hour at the Madison, Wisconsin airport looking for a state trooper. Before finding him, they approached at least seven other white men and checked their IDs. Then they handcuffed the 21-year old officer, who had federal permission to work through 2030 and was flying to visit his parents. Newly released surveillance footage shows how the November 5 arrest unfolded. Carel Aaron Van Der Merwe was released the following evening after a Republican congressman contacted the Homeland Security secretary. He still faces immigration proceedings. They Went Looking For White People! In Wisconson! The two immigration agents wore baseball caps and hoodies, with no obvious identification on their clothing. They carried manila folders and consulted papers while looking for someone matching Van Der Merwe’s description. The agents approached seven white men visible in the recording, plus another person outside the camera’s view. The men generally looked young, wore everything from sweatpants to business casual, and mostly carried backpacks. They produced ID and were allowed to continue. Two uniformed deputies waited with the agents. Once their target arrived, he handed over identification, spoke with the agents and walked with them to the airport’s entrance doors. An agent handcuffed him there. Van Der Merwe explained that he had a work permit and a pending asylum application, and the agents said they “did not care.” The Government Had Authorized Him To Work Van Der Merwe’s parents brought him from South Africa in March 2019, when he was 14. His original admission permitted a six month stay. His attorney says the family applied for asylum and has spent seven years waiting for an interview. He’s included in his father’s application and holds federal employment authorization through 2030. According to his attorney, he wanted to join the military but couldn’t because of his immigration status. He earned a criminal justice degree at New Mexico Military Institute and went into law enforcement instead. He’s been with the Wisconsin State Patrol since July 13, 2025 He was work-authorized by the federal government but that’s also consistent with a visa overstay, as I explained when ICE arrested Southwest Airlines flight attendant Lorenzo Thompson at Nashville airport. A person can have an unresolved asylum claim, hold a valid employment authorization document, and still face removal proceedings. That’s a pretty upside down world, since the government said he could work here and should allow him to stay pending resolution of asylum – which he’s been waiting for the government to address for years. Homeland Security says Van Der Merwe overstayed his original admission. His lawyer says he’s followed the legal process and has been waiting for the government to decide his case. Federal law allows detention while a removal case is pending. Prior to the Trump administration, a work-authorized individual with a pending asylum claim was essentially considered to be in valid status, and ICE hasn’t alleged any separate crime. The government knows where he lives and works, in a role promoting public safety, so it’s not clear what benefit there is to taking him off a family trip and putting him in jail while his asylum claim remains unresolved. The President now says his approach to immigration has been too harsh. Q: You think your deportation policy went too far? Trump: I think it might be too tough. https://t.co/NKhFjZKxnd — Clash Report (@clashreport) November 8, 2026 Airports Make People Easy To Find TSA likely alerted ICE when he bought his ticket. A May 2025 agreement obtained by American Oversight formalized information sharing between TSA and ICE, including storage of information by ICE. As I wrote in July, passenger information collected for aviation security is being used to locate immigration targets. Homeland Security says it considers people unlawfully present “can no longer fly unless it is out of our country to self-deport.” An airline reservation tells the government where someone plans to be and when. That makes an airport a convenient place to arrest them. But using TSA this way becomes a distraction from its security focus. We’ve already seen a U.S. citizen handcuffed while boarding Delta after being mistaken for a British man, and plainclothes agents abandon an attempted arrest at Las Vegas airport, leaving a traveler with a handcuff attached. Van Der Merwe went to jail and was released November 6 without posting bond after Representative Derrick Van Orden contacted Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. Topics on this page