Latest news with #KasperJuulEriksen
Daily Mail
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Mississippi dad's 10-year-old mistake lands him in ICE detention after final citizenship interview
A Danish father living in Mississippi was detained by ICE during the final stage of his US citizenship process because of a decade-old paperwork error. Kasper Juul Eriksen, 32, a father-of-four with another on the way, thought he was attending a routine citizenship appointment in Memphis, Tennessee on April 15. Legally living in the US with his pregnant wife Savannah for more than 10 years, Kasper would have never imagined this meeting would end in misery. Now, as his wife prepares to give birth to their fifth child, Erikson remains in legal limbo at an ICE detention center in Louisiana. The welder first came to America as an exchange student in 2009, when he met the love of his life at a Starkville, Mississippi high school. At the conclusion of his academic program, Kasper went back to Denmark for four years, maintaining a long-distance relationship with Savannah and planning to return to be with her. In 2013, the young couple was reunited when Kasper got a welding job in Mississippi. The pair married the following year - finally getting the happily ever after they were patiently waiting for. Since then, the green card holder has been working towards US naturalization for years - a process he and his wife believed was going flawlessly. The US government sent Kasper a letter in September 2024, stating his application was being reviewed. No questions about his paperwork were asked, Savannah told Mississippi Today. So when Kasper was swarmed by immigration agents at the April meeting, the couple was absolutely horrified. Savannah was dismissed from the office with no explanation about why her husband was being taken into custody or where he was going, she claimed. She spent the three-hour ride back to Sturgis, Mississippi panicked and afraid. They were later informed 'Kasper was detained for a paperwork miscommunication from 2015,' Savannah told the outlet. US Citizenship and Immigration Services found an error in Kasper's application for removal of conditions on his residency, which is a form immigrants fill out when marrying Americans. Kasper, who has a clean record and steady job, was allegedly never told about any logistical discrepancies before he was torn away from his family last month. 'The next 24 hours would, without a doubt, (be) the most frightening and stressful I have ever experienced, as I pined for my husband and some kind of communication to confirm his safety and whereabouts,' the devastated wife said. She later learned he was locked away at the LaSalle Detention Center in Jena, Louisiana. Kasper's lawyers have been fiercely advocating for his release, arguing he was wrongfully detained. 'Kasper is a fully integrated, productive member of society,' Savannah told Mississippi Today. 'While Kasper embodies all the positive qualities of a hard-working man in pursuit of the American Dream, he never forgets his family and friends. 'He spends time with us and takes the time to give each of his children the attention and fatherly love they deserve.' A judge must rule on the petition Kasper's lawyers filed for his freedom. But Savannah said there is no court date scheduled. A GoFundMe created to support Kasper's family - as he his the household's sole provider - has raised more than $29,000 so far. 'As a homeschooling mother, we are completely dependent on Kasper's income. Legal fees are mounting as are living expenses with our sole provider being detained for over a month now,' Savannah wrote on the page. During the first 100 days of Donald Trump's second presidential term, during which he vowed to crackdown on illegal immigration, more than 66,400 migrants have been arrested by ICE, the agency reports. Roughly 65,700 have been removed from the country. The agency claims that three out of four arrests are criminals. 'The brave men and women of ICE protect our families, friends and neighbors by removing public safety and national security threats from our communities,' ICE acting Director Todd M. Lyons declared at the end of April. 'We're just 100 days into this administration and thanks to President Trump and Secretary Noem, ICE is using every tool at its disposal to enforce our country's immigration laws and protect our communities.' United States Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem has championed Trump's crusade against illegal aliens, even warning migrants to leave the US before they are captured by ICE. 'President Trump has a clear message: if you are here illegally, we will find you and deport you,' she said in February.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Inside the Cockroach-Filled ICE Facility Where Trump's Goons Tossed Danish Dad of 4
The Danish dad of four detained at his interview to become a U.S. citizen has spent the last month in an ICE facility infamous for reports of a cockroach-filled kitchen and abuse by its guards. Kasper Juul Eriksen, 32, was arrested in Memphis, Tennessee, last month because he missed a paperwork deadline a decade ago. His wife was left to drive three hours back to their Mississippi home alone, while he was taken to the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena, Louisiana, about 140 miles northwest of Baton Rouge. An immigration attorney told the Daily Beast on Thursday that the rural facility is infamous even by ICE's standards, with its location making it ideal for holding migrants whom the agency wants to keep visitors from. Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil, who has been detained since March for organizing demonstrations regarding the Israeli-Hamas war, is also being held there. Known as CLIPC for short, it is a for-profit facility that the GEO Group operates. It was a juvenile correctional center in the 1990s, but was shut down after reports of children being beaten, tear-gassed, and pepper-sprayed emerged. GEO reopened the facility in 2008 to jail migrants on behalf of ICE. Complaints of abuse and 'inhumane' conditions followed, according to a Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights report published in August. That report featured allegations by a detainee named Alex, who filed multiple grievances related to forced labor practices, medical neglect, and contamination of the food they were served. 'A woman at CLIPC working in the kitchen discovered rat feces covering food bags and bread in the kitchen,' the report said. 'Officials forced her to serve the food after brushing aside the excrement.' Whistleblowers also claimed the facility ranks detainees by 'risk level,' with those deemed less risky in yellow and most risky in red. Those colors can reportedly change in a snap, however. One detainee alleged they were bumped from orange to the dreaded red jumpsuit 'after a verbal disagreement with an officer' over law library access. It is unknown what Eriksen's risk level is considered, but he has no criminal record. Conditions have been described as uncomfortable to downright deadly. In 2016, three migrants in custody died before July 1. The Department of Homeland Security's Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties investigated and determined that an improper medical response was a contributor to the deaths. The following year, the detention center ranked in the top five of U.S. immigrant jails for the number of sexual assault complaints it received. The Kennedy nonprofit said these issues are compounded by staffing issues, as there is just one guard for every 230 detained people. Even basic liberties are often denied, detainees allege. That included the reported denial of access to toothbrushes and tampons, as well as claims that guards gave detainees used razor blades and forced a man in solitary confinement to spend three months without clean laundry or bedding. 'People treat their dogs better than how this jail treats us,' a detainee named Daniel told the nonprofit. 'There is no respect for human life. No humanity. It is impossible for me to get the right treatment for my diabetes here. Every day, I fear for my life. At CLIPC, 'PC' stands for 'punishment custody,' not 'protective custody.'' The GEO Group told the Daily Beast in a statement that it provides 'around-the-clock access to medical care, in-person and virtual legal and family visitation, general and legal library access, dietitian-approved meals and specialty diets, and recreational amenities.' The organization added, 'We are proud of the role our company has played for 40 years to support the law enforcement mission of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.' Eriksen has been in ICE custody since he arrived at his citizenship interview after living in Mississippi for over a decade. He works as a welder and first came to America as a foreign exchange student in high school. Eriksen's wife, Jennifer, told the Mississippi Free Press that he was detained because he did not submit Form I-751, otherwise known as 'Petition to Remove Conditions on Residence,' by a deadline in 2015. The deadline came and went as the family was grappling with the fallout of her suffering a stillbirth with their first child, she said. Sarah F. Rogerson, a professor at Albany Law School in New York, told the Daily Beast that Eriksen's missing form was a serious one in the naturalization process. 'Unfortunately, certain forms in immigration carry a lot more weight than what a reasonable person would perceive as mere paperwork,' she said. 'Something like a missed filing deadline for a Form I-751, though it seems like a harmless error, could result in a determination by immigration authorities that a person has abandoned their entire application for residency and therefore, no longer wish to naturalize. It can also sometimes result in the government unilaterally terminating the individual's application for failure to timely file.' Eriksen has a court date scheduled for May 27 to determine whether he can be released on bail, according to a GoFundMe run by Savannah. Rogerson said whether he gets out will largely depend on the judge he is assigned to. At best, Rogerson says he could be released on bail and continue pursuing citizenship. At worst, he could be placed in removal proceedings that could take years to play out. 'The next few days and weeks are extremely important,' she said. 'It's a terrifying story that immigrant families face every time they report to ICE officials, even when they think that their paperwork is in order, and even when the delay is not on their end, but a result of government error.'
