The trooper, Carel Aaron Van Der Merwe, a South African immigrant who came to the U.S. seven years ago at age 14, was taken into custody as he prepared to board a flight to New Mexico to visit family. His attorney, Marc Christopher, said Van Der Merwe had been working legally under a permit issued by the Department of Homeland Security while his family awaited a decision on an asylum case filed in 2019.

The surveillance footage, obtained by a local news investigation, shows two men appearing to be ICE agents waiting inside the airport for roughly 45 minutes and speaking with two sheriff's deputies. The men, carrying folders, approach Van Der Merwe, who provides some form of identification. The video has no audio. The group then walks into a doorway with the deputies following. After a brief discussion, one agent takes Van Der Merwe's bag while the other appears to place him in handcuffs, and the agents walk him out the door. As they leave, one agent gives the sheriff's deputies a thumbs up and one waves back.

Van Der Merwe was jailed for approximately 24 hours by the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday and released Friday night. His attorney credited public pressure and the efforts of Wisconsin Congressman Derrick Van Orden, who spoke directly with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin about the case.

"He's risked his life to help out people in our community, and when you're going to indiscriminately pick him up, detain him, especially when he's done everything correctly that he can do. I think that people just found that to be an extreme overreach," Christopher said in an interview Monday.

President Donald Trump appeared to reference cases like Van Der Merwe's during a Sunday interview on CBS's "60 Minutes." "I get very good marks for getting the bad ones out. But I get hurt because we also took people that had good jobs, that created one violation for breaking of the law, and that was they came into the country illegally. I think it might be too tough, yeah," Trump said.

The Department of Homeland Security did not answer questions directly about the case on Friday. In a statement, a DHS spokesperson said: "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."

Van Der Merwe is expected to return to his State Patrol duties while awaiting an immigration court hearing in the coming months. His attorney said they will pursue every available avenue to secure lawful permanent resident status for him.

The arrest has fueled debate over the Trump administration's immigration enforcement tactics, particularly the detention of individuals with legal work permits and pending asylum claims. Community members and local officials have expressed concern that such actions undermine trust in law enforcement and disproportionately target individuals who pose no threat. The case also highlights the broader tension between federal immigration priorities and the role of local police, as sheriff's deputies were present during the arrest but did not intervene.

As Van Der Merwe prepares to return to work, the incident remains a flashpoint in Wisconsin's ongoing conversation about immigration, public safety, and the limits of federal authority.