Latest news with #SavannahEriksen
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
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Dad Of 4 Detained At Final Citizenship Interview After Spending Years Going Through Process
A Danish father who came into the United States legally and was in the process of becoming a U.S. citizen has now spent well over a month in immigration detention after he was taken into custody at his citizenship interview in April. Savannah Eriksen, the wife of 32-year-old Kasper Juul Eriksen, told Mississippi Today that her husband 'was detained for a paperwork miscommunication from 2015, and I was sent home with no explanation and no idea where my husband had been transported.' Savannah Eriksen said her husband had been going through the process of trying to become a citizen 'for years.' The couple met in 2009 when Kasper Eriksen left his hometown of Aalborg, Denmark, to come to the U.S. as a high school exchange student in Starkville, Mississippi, according to the newspaper. They continued their relationship at a distance after Kasper Eriksen returned to Denmark in 2010. He came back to Mississippi as a legal immigrant in 2013 and the couple married a year later, according to the outlet. During that time, Kasper Eriksen obtained work as a welder, paid taxes and had four children with his wife. The two are now expecting a fifth child. On April 15, Kasper Eriksen was taken into ICE custody at his final citizenship interview in Memphis, Tennessee. ICE records reviewed by HuffPost showed that Kasper Eriksen is being held in LaSalle Detention Facility in Jena, Louisiana, the same privately owned detention center where Columbia University student activist Mahmoud Khalil is in custody. Speaking from the GEO Group-owned detention center, Kasper Eriksen told the Mississippi Free Press on Tuesday that the law enforcement officer waiting for him in Memphis had 'a real sense of remorse because they realized it was an unfortunate circumstance.' According to the Free Press, Eriksen believes he was ordered removed for failing to submit form I-751, which conditional U.S. residents who marry American citizens must turn in to apply for permanent residency. He also recalled that his immigration case manager attributed what happened to the strict immigration policies that have become a hallmark of President Donald Trump's administration. 'He told us that, had it been a couple of months earlier, during the previous administration, the situation would have probably been different,' he said. Savannah Eriksen wrote on GoFundMe that she and her husband were never notified about the paperwork error at any previous interviews or appointments during her husband's citizenship process. Since his detention, Kasper Eriksen has lost about 25 pounds, the Free Press reports. He has met immigrants from across the world who were detained for different reasons. 'It's all different stuff,' he told the news outlet. 'Some people have an expired visa, for some, it's a minor or larger crime. I would say that some of these people (are victims) of miscommunication.' According to Savannah Eriksen's GoFundMe, her husband has a bond hearing on May 27. The bulk of Kasper Eriksen's citizenship process was handled by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, with ICE only getting involved when it received an order for his removal, ICE spokesperson Lindsay Williams told the Mississippi Free Press. She added, 'the president and the administration have been pretty clear about increased immigration enforcement.' USCIS spokesperson Matthew J. Tragesser would not comment on the specifics of the case to the outlet, but said, 'It is the responsibility of conditional residents of the United States to apply to have those conditions removed before their Green Card expires—allowing them to obtain their permanent residence and ultimately citizenship.' HuffPost has reached out to both ICE and USCIS. Harvard Researcher Detained By ICE To Be Transferred To Massachusetts Hasan Piker Detained By CBP While Re-Entering The Country From France Judge Orders Release Of Georgetown Scholar Detained By Trump Administration
