An official with a Flathead Valley non-profit dedicated to helping refugees said a 33-year-old Venezuelan man was arrested by federal agents in Whitefish and sent to an out-of-state detention center last week, despite being in the country legally.
According to Rebecca Miller, chair of the nonprofit Valley Neighbors, Beker Rengifo del Castillo arrived in the United States in July 2024 as part of a federal program that enabled thousands of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans to enter the U.S. and escape political or environmental upheaval in their home countries. The parole program, instituted by the Biden administration in 2022, allowed applicants to stay in the country for two years and was designed to ease border crossings. A total of 531,690 people were granted parole under the program, including 117,330 Venezuelans.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration ended the humanitarian parole program, often known by the abbreviation CHNV, although a federal judge in Boston issued an order temporarily preventing the federal government from taking that step. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services posted an alert soon after the judge’s decision, stating that parole termination notices sent to people in the country under the CHNV program would not go into effect.
Rengifo del Castillo had a sponsor in Montana and, according to Miller, had been living and working in the Kalispell area. After arriving in the U.S., he applied for asylum. Miller said she did not believe Rengifo del Castillo had a criminal record. She described him as hard-working and always having a positive attitude.
According to Missoula-based Andrea Sweeney, Rengifo del Castillo’s attorney, he was pulled over by Whitefish Police for a possible broken taillight on Thursday evening while leaving work. At some point, U.S. Border Patrol arrived on the scene, as well, and Rengifo del Castillo was detained. A spokesperson with the U.S. Border Patrol declined to comment.
Rengifo del Castillo texted his sponsor after he was pulled over by law enforcement and before he was detained. Not long after Rengifo del Castillo arrived at the border patrol station, local activists organized a small protest outside demanding his release. Sweeney was also able to speak with him over the phone at about 1:30 a.m. Friday, before he was transferred to ICE custody. Sweeney said as of Monday, Rengifo del Castillo was being held in a detention center in Tacoma, Wash., and that she has not been able to speak with him. She said she is currently trying to find an attorney in Washington who can go to the detention center to meet with him. ICE did not respond to a request for comment from Montana Free Press.
Sweeney said she has not been provided with any charging documents and does not know why federal agents still have him detained.
“He entered the U.S. legally,” she said.
Miller said the episode has scared other immigrants in the community.
“I don’t think anyone could argue he was here illegally,” Miller said of Rengifo del Castillo’s special parole status. “This has people scared. There’s this belief that if you have your paperwork and your status, you’ll be ok. But then someone who was following all the rules gets arrested. It’s anxiety-inducing.”
Miller said it has been hard to get a firm number of how many people have been detained by Border Patrol or ICE in the Flathead Valley in recent months. But based on information from the Border Patrol’s own local Facebook page and what she’s heard locally, Miller estimated about 100 people have been detained. Border Patrol did not respond to a request for specific numbers. However, federal immigration agents and the Trump administration have stepped up efforts to find people in the country illegally.
Judge Larry Baer lives in Bigfork and serves on the bench for a Native American tribe in North Dakota. He often takes Amtrak’s Empire Builder to and from North Dakota, and he was doing just that on April 13 when U.S. Border Patrol agents boarded the train in Havre. He said two agents entered the car he was on during the station stop and asked each passenger if they were a U.S. citizen. Baer said the train’s conductor said he had never before seen agents board the train.
“They were courteous and professional,… and I’m sympathetic to their mission,” Bear told MTFP, adding that his grandfather was once a border patrol agent. “I just thought it was weird.”
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