BREAKING🚨 The federal government cleared a Wisconsin state trooper to work in this country until 2030. ICE just shackled him and is moving to deport him to South Africa. Carel Aaron Van Der Merwe, 21, was waiting to board a domestic flight at Dane County Regional Airport in Madison on Thursday when ICE agents walked up to him. He told them he had a federal work permit and a pending asylum application. According to Van Der Merwe, the officers said they "did not care," then put him in handcuffs and shackles and took him to immigration detention in Dodge County. He's still there. ICE's own detainee locator lists him at the Dodge Detention Facility. Van Der Merwe came to the U.S. legally from South Africa as a child. His family applied for asylum and has waited seven years for an interview. He's included on his father's pending asylum application, and his federal work authorization runs through 2030. He wanted to serve in the military, but his pending immigration status kept him out, so he went into law enforcement. He earned a criminal justice degree from New Mexico Military Institute and became a Wisconsin state trooper about a year ago. He lives in Onalaska and works out of the Tomah post. State Patrol hiring rules allow noncitizens with valid work authorization to serve as troopers. DHS calls him an "illegal alien." The agency says his permission to stay ran out in September 2019 and that a work permit or pending application does not give him legal status. A DHS spokesperson also attacked what they called the "horrendous Biden-era policy" that let immigrants fly within the country. The spokesperson said the administration wants people it considers illegal to be unable to fly "unless it is out of our country to self-deport." His attorney, Marc Christopher, is seeking his release on bond, which is expected to take about two weeks. "ICE says it is going after people who break the law. Here, it has detained someone whose job is to uphold it," Christopher said. "Now the same government that authorized him to work has locked him up." Christopher is calling on Wisconsin's congressional delegation to demand Van Der Merwe's release.