Mississippi man’s ICE detention draws attention of Danish foreign ministry

Kasper Eriksen, who immigrated from Denmark more than a decade ago, is in many ways an unexpected consequence of Trump administration’s mass deportations

Updated with response from Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The immigration case of a Sturgis, Mississippi, father of four who was detained by U.S. authorities more than a month ago has reached high levels of Denmark’s government, with officials confirming that it is now under review by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Copenhagen.

Kasper Juul Eriksen, a Danish-born welder who has legally lived and worked in Mississippi for more than a decade, was arrested without warning in April and is being held at the LaSalle Detention Center in Jena, Louisiana. On May 27, he appeared at a preliminary immigration hearing but was afterward returned to detention.

In a statement posted on a GoFundMe site, his wife, Savannah Eriksen, said his case was reopened during the hearing, “but bond was not issued along with it at this time.” She wrote that she was grateful the judge did not order her husband to be immediately deported.

Eriksen was detained on April 15, 2025, during what was meant to be his final U.S. citizenship naturalization interview in Memphis. The story, which The Mississippi Independent broke on May 15, has since drawn extensive local, national and international media coverage, prompted tens of thousands of dollars in donations and spawned a rash of online trolling — not only due to the circumstances of his arrest but because of his and his wife’s prior reposting of pro-Trump and other conservative posts on social media.

The Royal Danish Embassy in Washington, D.C., typically serves as a liaison in matters involving its citizens in the United States, and the transfer of responsibility to Denmark’s foreign ministry suggests Eriksen’s case has taken on broader diplomatic or political weight. There have been growing tensions between the two nations since President Donald Trump began talking about acquiring Greenland, a Danish territory. Denmark is also among a growing list of countries that have revised their travel advisories to the United States.

Sofie Amalie Rasmussen, the Danish embassy’s public diplomacy advisor, told The Mississippi Independent by email on May 27 that a request for information about the Danish government’s response to Eriksen’s case would need to go through the press office at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Denmark. Asked during a follow-up phone call if the referral to the government ministry was unusual, Rasmussen said, “I have no idea if Kasper Eriksen’s case is typical or not typical. Lots of issues concerning Danish people being arrested abroad will go through Copenhagen.”

Caroline Secher Anderson, press advisor at the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that the ministry is considering Eriksen’s case, adding, “These things take time. We’re still looking into the case and will get back to you.” It is unclear how much sway Danish officials could potentially hold with U.S. officials.

Anderson followed up on May 28 with this email: “The Ministry is providing consular assistance in this case. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is bound by confidentiality in personal cases and can therefore not provide further details.”

Eriksen’s case has reverberated across Scandinavia, where Danish and Swedish media outlets have provided extensive coverage of his detention. TV2, one of Denmark’s largest national broadcasters, attended Tuesday’s preliminary immigration hearing in Louisiana and briefly spoke with Eriksen as he awaited transport back to his cell. “I don’t know much. They say they’ve postponed it,” he told the network.

Politiken, Denmark’s leading broadsheet, framed Eriksen’s case within a broader critique of the American immigration system, noting in a headline that he is “far from the only law-abiding migrant in U.S. prison.” The paper quoted his U.S.-based immigration attorney describing the federal backlog of deportation cases in stark terms: “We are feeding a monster.”

A Political Rorschach Test

According to Savannah Eriksen’s account, which has been reported by numerous outlets, her husband’s detention stemmed from a bureaucratic error — failure to file a single form in 2015 while the couple was grieving over a miscarriage. She has described the anguish his detention has caused the family and friends, as well as the impact of his loss of income and concerns about a potential deportation.

Yet, in response, many online commentators have focused more on the couple’s politics than on their misfortune. A majority of social media comments have framed Eriksen’s case as a political irony: a conservative, seemingly pro-Trump immigrant being ensnared by the administration’s anti-immigration machine. Screenshots of Eriksen’s public social media posts, including pro-Trump retweets and conservative commentary, have circulated widely, and some users mocked the family’s ordeal using the acronym “FAFO” — short for “Fuck Around and Find Out.” One commenter posted on the Mississippi Free Press’s Facebook account: “Nope. No sympathy. The two of them are just sad it’s happening to them, not the ‘illegals.’”

A smaller group of commentators has urged a more measured and humane response, warning of an immigration system that increasingly appears arbitrary and detached from morality or logic. In this interpretation, the case illustrates that the administration is testing the limits and that no one is truly safe.

“Even if you don’t empathize with Kasper & family, THINK,” one Facebook commenter posted. “Is this what you want for your neighbors? For YOU?”

After The Mississippi Independent broke the story and Mississippi Today followed up with its own report, Mississippi Free Press reporter Nick Judin published the most detailed account to date, which prompted online criticism that his story did not focus more on the Eriksens’ political views.

Free Press news editor Ashton Pittman addressed the divisive rhetoric in a recent editorial, defending the focus on Eriksen’s humanity over partisanship. Rather than leading with ideology or using the family’s political affiliations as a narrative cudgel, the story focused on the emotional toll of immigration enforcement on a father (soon to be of five children) and his wife, in Pittman’s view. He rejected calls for a “gotcha” narrative, arguing that reducing human suffering to political point-scoring is cruel and unethical.

“We hold powerful people accountable across partisan lines, but when it comes to everyday people, we aren’t going to hold their feet to the fire over their personal political views,” Pittman wrote. “The idea that anybody could deserve this because of how they voted is deplorable, and we strongly reject it.”

A Broader Immigration Crackdown

Eriksen’s Danish nationality is undoubtedly a departure from the usual anti-immigration paradigm, though other European travelers and visa holders have faced repercussions. In addition to Mississippi news outlets, Danish, British and Indian media have picked up on his story, amplifying awareness of the case and helping the family raise nearly $60,000 via GoFundMe. Most immigrants detained by ICE do not receive that level of attention or financial support. Eriksen’s identity — a white man from Denmark, living and reportedly paying taxes in rural Mississippi — makes for an atypical, easily highlighted case. Yet apart from his nationality and race, his situation is far from unique.

The reasons cited by ICE for detaining immigrants range from serious criminal offenses to clerical errors. In some cases, the agency detains and deports individuals with no apparent legal basis. In March, the U.S. government transported about 240 Venezuelan immigrants to a maximum-security facility in El Salvador, claiming they were gang members based on their tattoos and clothing. A CBS investigation later found that 75 percent had no criminal records in the U.S. or abroad, and many had not even violated immigration law. According to multiple reports, Eriksen has no criminal history.

ICE reported having arrested about 66,000 immigrants during Trump’s first 100 days in office. Among the higher-profile cases is that of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was wrongly deported to the same prison in El Salvador despite having a removal protection order. Since then, the U.S. president has refused to comply with a Supreme Court directive to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return. U.S. Rep. Glenn Ivey of Maryland attempted to visit Abrego Garcia at the facility last week but was denied access.

Savannah Eriksen has said her husband’s detention was the result of a “paperwork miscommunication” from 2015 (a missed deadline for a form), that the couple was not previously notified of the oversight, and that he holds a green card and was in the process of becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen at the time. In stark contrast, Newsweek quoted Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin saying: “Kasper Eriksen, a Danish national, is in our country illegally. He failed to show up for his immigration hearing on April 2, 2019. He has a final order of removal from an immigration judge. This administration is not going to ignore the rule of law.”

Due to Eriksen’s background, politics and now, visibility, he has become something of a litmus test for public empathy in the Trump-era immigration debate. The response has also highlighted the tendency across the political spectrum to turn individuals into symbols, rather than treat them as human beings.

“FAFO may be a popular way for some folks on social media to answer the suffering of people whom they perceive to be their political opposites,” Pittman wrote, “but it’s poison to the journalist’s soul.”

The Kingdom of Denmark has not yet publicly weighed in on Eriksen’s detention, which holds the potential to become a symbolic sticking point on a diplomatic level.

For now, though, Eriksen and his family and friends must await a resolution, which they hope will enable him to return home to Sturgis.

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Image: Kasper Eriksen (cropped image via GoFundMe)