ICE has a Wisconsin State Trooper in custody, according to a law firm's Thursday announcement, and the details so far are thinner than a November fishing report. WBAY broke the story, and as of this writing neither ICE nor the Wisconsin State Patrol has confirmed the basics: who the trooper is, what country he's from, or what led to the arrest. Read the original report here.

So let's separate what we know from what we don't, because in this business the gap between the two is where the nonsense lives.

What we know: a law firm says its client, a Wisconsin State Trooper, was detained by ICE on Thursday. That's the box score. Everything else is pending.

What we don't know: whether the trooper is an illegal alien, a legal permanent resident with an old removal issue, a visa overstay, or something stranger. People get picked up for all of those reasons. A detainer, a failed asylum claim, a missed court date. Until ICE puts out a statement or the arrest record surfaces, I won't guess, and you should ignore anyone who does.

What I can tell you from 26 years of wearing the uniform: a serving state trooper ending up in ICE custody is rare. Agencies run background checks on hires. If this trooper was in the country illegally, that check missed it, or his status changed after he was hired, or he came in on paperwork that expired and he never squared it away. Any of those is possible. None of them is common.

For readers new to this beat, a quick word on process. When ICE arrests someone, the person goes into a detention facility, gets a notice to appear before an immigration judge if he doesn't already have a removal order, and his case proceeds from there. Expedited removal can skip the judge entirely for recent entrants. A trooper with years in the country would likely get the full court process, which means this story develops slowly and by court filing, not by press conference.

Now the predictable circus. Whenever ICE arrests somebody with a sympathetic job title, the usual crowd treats the job title as a legal document. It isn't. A badge doesn't confer citizenship. If the man is here legally, ICE will sort that out and release him, and that happens more often than the cable shows admit. If he isn't, then Wisconsin had an illegal alien writing traffic tickets with a gun on his hip, and that's a problem the State Patrol owes the public an answer for, not ICE.

I've said before that ICE's job is to enforce the law as written, not as the activists wish it were written. If the law says this trooper is removable, he's removable. If it doesn't, he walks. Either way, that's the system working, and I'll report the number either way. I don't root for a bust to be bigger than it is.

The questions the State Patrol needs to answer, on the record: when was this man hired, what background check cleared him, what's his immigration status, and did anybody in the agency know there was a problem before Thursday. Those answers will come. They always do. The paper trail in a case like this is long, and paper doesn't care about press strategy.

I'll update the count when ICE confirms the arrest and the details land. Until then, treat every hot take you see about this one as what it is: a guess dressed up as news.

The scoreboard: one detention, zero confirmed details, and a law firm with a press release. Check back when the facts arrive. They usually travel slower than the outrage.