Starkville father of four in immigration custody after arrest at final citizenship interview by ICE agents

Family and friends marshal support for Denmark native who has legally lived and worked in Mississippi for more than a decade

Kasper Juul Eriksen, a 31-year-old Danish national and father of four living in Starkville, Mississippi, was arrested by ICE agents in April and is currently being held at a processing center in Jena, Louisiana, according to a series of Facebook posts by his family and friends.

As a native of northern Europe who has followed legal guidelines and sometimes reposted conservative tweets on X, Kasper Eriksen does not represent a typical target of anti-immigrant fervor. His detention illustrates the expanding reach of ICE, which President Trump has said may include deportation of U.S. citizens to foreign prisons without constitutionally mandated due process.

Publicly accessible social media posts by Kasper Eriksen’s wife, Savannah Eriksen, and others note that he had followed every legal step toward obtaining U.S. citizenship since immigrating from Denmark in 2013. (Savannah Eriksen has not responded to messages or phone calls from The Mississippi Independent seeking updates about his status.)

A person who answered the phone at Welding Works, where Kasper Eriksen is reportedly employed, said it was his understanding that an attorney hired by the family advised them not to speak with the media, adding that he would need to get approval from Eriksen’s wife before commenting further.

Dave Schaefer, a longtime family acquaintance who spoke to The Mississippi Independent from his home in Rolling Fork, where Savannah Eriksen formerly lived, observed that Kasper Eriksen was an upstanding member of his community and a beloved father, adding that “everybody is always talking about how great of a dad he is. His kids really love him a lot and he’s very involved with them. Watching the family be separated like this is a travesty, and I question the efficiency of our government when they are detaining hardworking people like himself.”

Eriksen’s father, Kristian Eriksen, wrote in a May 5 Facebook post that his son came to the United States legally on a green card and that he “has lived his American dream working hard, paying taxes, getting married to Savannah and raising a family of four beautiful children and one more coming, buying land and building them a home.” He wrote that his son has followed the procedures to become a U.S. citizen and “went for his final interview to obtain his citizenship in Memphis on April 15, but was arrested at the meeting because of a ‘paperwork miscommunication’ in 2015. He has been in immigration jail ever since.”

It is not clear what the “paperwork miscommunication” involved.

Eriksen’s detainment came a month after the controversial ICE arrest and deportation of Salvadoran Kilmar Abrego Garcia as a result of what the Trump administration conceded was an administrative error. Abrego Garcia was flown to a prison in El Salvador despite a court order prohibiting it and the administration has taken no action to repatriate him, as the U.S. Supreme Court directed.

More than 66,000 people have been detained by ICE since late April, according to federal records, including dozens of U.S. citizens and children. Although ICE traditionally targets undocumented immigrants, a growing number of legal residents -- green card holders, exchange visitors, even tourists -- have been caught up in enforcement sweeps. One Irish national was reportedly detained for 17 days over a 20-year-old, expunged drug offense. A Welsh backpacker was held for weeks while attempting to leave the U.S. and a German tourist spent nearly a month in detention, including eight days in solitary confinement (both were accused of unauthorized employment).

Kasper Eriksen first arrived in Mississippi in 2009 as a Rotary Club exchange student, which is how he met his future wife. The couple began a long-distance relationship, traveling internationally to meet until he was able to legally immigrate to the U.S., she wrote in an April 18, 2025, social media post. They married in May 2014 and he took a job at Welding Works, in Starkville. His personal social media posts indicate he is an avid deer hunter and Mississippi State University fan.

According to updates that Savannah Eriksen shared, an unnamed lawyer is preparing to file for humanitarian parole -- a rarely used form of discretionary relief that allows individuals in removal proceedings to remain in the country under extraordinary circumstances.

Humanitarian parole is typically reserved for those outside the U.S. facing urgent crises but can apply to people in the U.S. if deportation would create exceptional hardship, according to information from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The procedure has become a political flashpoint, with the Trump administration having attempted to revoke humanitarian parole access for approximately 500,000 individuals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela -- a move blocked by federal courts. During the same period, expedited immigration processing was granted to roughly 60 white South Africans granted refugee status, which is often a years-long process but in their case was completed in a few months.

Humanitarian parole and refugee status are different but sometimes overlap. When the refugee system is backlogged, parole can serve as a temporary bridge. In past administrations, parole has been used to help Afghans, Ukrainians, Hungarians, Vietnamese and participants in what is known as the CHNV program (shorthand for Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela).

As Kasper Eriksen’s loved ones await the outcome of his case, they have been gathering letters of support and contacting elected officials.

“We are so grateful to our state, family, and inner circle that have shown an immense amount of support in proving Kasper’s worth in our community and country,” Savannah Eriksen wrote in her April 18 post. “We are so thankful to the elected officials that have been fighting around the clock to bring Kasper home.”

A family friend posted on Facebook: “Please share and help us connect to get more eyes and ears aware of his situation so he can get home to his family and rectify this issue in a court of law!”

Clarification: Although Kasper Eriksen uses “William” as his middle name on social media (as was previously reported), ICE records provide his given name as “Juul.”

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Image: Unidentified ICE agent (via CNB News/Creative Commons)