Venezuelan Man Arrested in Whitefish Released by Federal Authorities 

A 33-year-old Venezuelan man, in the country legally when he was arrested by federal agents in Whitefish last week, has been released from an out-of-state detention center. 

Beker Rengifo del Castillo spent nearly a week in the custody of U.S. Border Patrol and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, despite having entered the United States legally in 2024. Andrea Sweeney, Rengifo del Castillo’s attorney, stated that he was released from ICE custody in Tacoma, Wash., Wednesday. He is now trying to get back home to the Flathead Valley. 

“We still don’t know why he was picked up, and we don’t know why they released him, but we are just grateful that he is now out,” she said. 

A spokesperson for U.S. Border Patrol told Montana Free Press that privacy rules prevent the agency from discussing specific cases. 

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. 

On April 24, Rengifo del Castillo was leaving work in Whitefish when he was pulled over by local police, possibly for a broken tail light, according to Sweeney. At some point, Border Patrol arrived on the scene and arrested Rengifo del Castillo. He was taken to the Border Patrol station in Whitefish and then transferred to ICE custody and the detention center in Washington.

In the days following Rengifo del Castillo’s arrest, local activists organized protests outside the border patrol station. Sweeney said she believed that public pressure helped get Rengifo del Castillo out of detention. 

Valley Neighbors, a Flathead-based non-profit that helps immigrants, said in a statement Thursday that it was thankful for Rengifo del Castillo’s release but criticized local police for involving the Border Patrol in the traffic stop. 

“We hope that this case has been a wake-up call for Whitefish Customs and Border Protection and the whole Spokane Sector, as well as to Whitefish Police, who initially conducted the stop and called CBP,” the group said. “A man was deprived of his liberty for a week, subjected to loss of income and emotional trauma.” 

This story originally appeared in the Montana Free Press, which can be found online at montanafreepress.org.