Carel Aaron Van Der Merwe is a Wisconsin state trooper who was detained and then released by ICE.
The 21-year-old officer was detained at the Dane County Regional Airport in the state’s Capitol city during a “targeted” ICE operation, according to WISN-TV. He was held for about 24 hours and then released, although it’s not clear why. His attorney told the television station that Van Der Merwe will have to “meet with ICE regularly due to an order of supervision, and he will be monitored by an electronic device.”
“Carel Aaron Van Der Merwe wanted to serve the United States. When his pending immigration status prevented him from joining the military, he chose law enforcement. He graduated from the New Mexico Military Institute with a degree in criminal justice and became a Wisconsin State Trooper, serving honorably for nearly a year,” his attorney Marc Christopher wrote in a news release.
In 2025, the Wisconsin State Patrol announced that he was one of 27 news officers, listing his hometown as Southerland, South Africa. At that ceremony, Wisconsin’s governor “congratulated the new officers and thanked them for their commitment to public safety,” according to a news release still posted to the state Department of Transportation’s website.
U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden told WPR that he had contacted 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.
Who Is Carel Aaron Van Der Merwe?
He worked as a trooper at a Tomah, WI, post and lived in Onalaska, a city in western Wisconsin, according to News 8000. According to ABC News, he “came to the U.S. legally from South Africa as a child and has waited seven years for an asylum interview.”
His attorney Christopher said in the news release that he was detained while trying to board a domestic flight and told ICE that he had a “federal work permit and explained he had a pending asylum application,” but was allegedly told that agents didn’t care. He was taken to a detention facility in Dodge County.
DHS told WPR that the trooper came to the U.S. “with legal permission to stay until September 2019. 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. To be clear: work authorization does not confer legal status in the United States,” the spokesperson added.
And the agency told ABC News 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.”
His attorney said in the release that 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.”
“ICE says it is going after people who break the law. Here, it has detained someone whose job is to uphold it,” he added.
“His release does not erase what he and his family have been through,” his attorney told News 8000. “There is still no explanation why DHS detained him or why exactly he is now being released. Those are the answers we seek and Carel and his family, and work community deserves. We continue to stress how DHS’s own agency, USCIS, authorized him to work. He used that authorization to serve and protect Wisconsin communities. Yet that same agency, detained him. We hope DHS will provide an explanation.”
Rebecca Cooke, the congresswoman-elect in the area where the trooper lives, said in a statement to WEAU-TV, “I am disturbed at reports that a valued member of our Wisconsin community, Wisconsin State Trooper Carel Aaron Van Der Merwe, was unjustly detained by ICE. If these reports are true, ICE’s behavior is unacceptable. This is a public servant who puts his life in danger to keep Wisconsinites safe. And it comes after ICE has repeatedly put our communities in danger by violating fundamental rights. I will investigate this incident and demand an explanation from ICE officials about why a member of Wisconsin law enforcement is being treated this way – and I will stand up for him until he is released.”
Carel Aaron Van Der Merwe: Wisconsin State Trooper Detained, Released by ICE