Kurt Penner

This father went to his citizenship hearing expecting a handshake. Instead, ICE shackled him, threw him into a van, and tore him away from his pregnant wife and four children—without even letting him say goodbye. Kasper Eriksen arrived in Mississippi from Denmark in 2013, fully documented and determined to build a life here. He started a family, became part of his community, and followed every rule. He was never accused, let alone convicted, of any crime. But as best we understand, he's now imprisoned because of a single clerical mistake made years ago. In 2015, Kasper and his wife, Savannah, missed filing one form, among the hundreds required on the complicated path to citizenship. Savannah had just suffered a stillbirth, losing their first child. In the painful days that followed, paperwork deadlines understandably slipped past unnoticed. Now, over a month after his arrest, Kasper remains locked in a detention facility notorious for cruelty, neglect, and abuse. Savannah—eight months pregnant, at high risk, and terrified—is desperately pleading for her husband's return. She and their children have no idea when or if they'll ever see him again, and she doesn't know if he'll be present for her child's birth. Every day brings another nightmare under the Trump administration. The actions of our government are evil. There's simply no other way to describe it. May God have mercy on us all for allowing this to happen.