The wife of a South African detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has sprung to his defence, saying he was guilty only of a youthful mistake.
ICE this week named Jacobus Lodevickus Janse van Rensburg as “a criminal illegal alien” wanted on charges of aggravated assault with a weapon, assault and driving while intoxicated. Another South African man who lives between the two countries shared on X that the charges dated to 2022 and 2023.
This appeared to be corroborated by Tamra Janse van Rensburg, who posted that “some 22-year-old boys do make a mistake”.
She said the ICE agency had listed the wrong charges but did not provide any details.
Commenting on a post from someone who complained Janse van Rensburg had ruined the image of Afrikaners, Tamra said: “Shame on you for having an opinion with zero knowledge and even worse misinformation.”
He had paperwork to be in the country, the US citizen said.
“Jaco came to the US to farm for four years (two of them before we met) on an H2a visa. We fell in love and want to build a life together. We applied for his adjustment of status after we got married before his visa expired and had our in-person interview in October 2025. No red flags; it honestly seemed to go well, and we thought it was going to be a quick response,“ she wrote.
“Yes, he made a mistake at 22 (no felonies), but he completed his probation and deserves a second chance. Anyone who knows him personally would agree with me.”
The Janse van Rensburg couple are residents in Minnesota, where ICE is executing an immigration clampdown. He hails from Verkeerdevlei, a small town in the Free State. The H-2A visa allows foreigners to fill temporary or seasonal agricultural jobs.
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