Court hears arguments for British man who arrived in U.S. as a teen, faces deportation as an adult

In 2015, Dakota Wheeler and his mother were booked on a flight from Salt Lake City to London Heathrow, a couple of hours’ drive from their home in Birmingham, England. They were supposed to return after staying two months in Great Falls.

Wheeler, who was 15 at the time, never got on that flight. Neither did his mother, Lisa Anderson, who said she was told that if she left the country, it could scuttle her ability to return and get resident status later on. Instead, she said, she stayed in the country and married an American man she’d known online for a few years.

“They said you’re getting married,” Anderson told Montana Free Press Wednesday. “And I said, ‘Huh? I’m flying out tomorrow.'”

Court documents say that while the new husband originally applied for green cards on behalf of both Wheeler and Anderson, only Anderson received lawful permanent status in 2022.

Wheeler never received resident status. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement alleges that he overstayed a visa waiver that expired in 2015, and an order of removal is pending against him.

Now 26, Wheeler is engaged to a woman who is expecting their child in the spring. He’s fighting his deportation order in court.

U.S. Homeland Security Investigations agents arrested Wheeler on Nov. 5, 2025 — 11 years to the day after he arrived in the U.S. from England. The arrest happened at The Rainbow senior living home, where Wheeler worked in downtown Great Falls. He’d been a kitchen worker there for eight years. Immigration agents responded to “several tips” about Wheeler’s status before arresting him, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court.

During a hearing Wednesday in that court, attorneys debated whether a judge’s order preventing Wheeler’s removal from Montana — a next step in his potential deportation — by ICE could remain in place.

Wheeler’s attorney argued that because Wheeler came to the United States with his mother as a 15-year-old, it wasn’t up to him whether he stayed or left. 

Wheeler and his mother entered the United States through the visa waiver program, which allows tourists or business visitors to stay for 90 days without requiring a visa.

“The visa waiver program, as applied to a minor, is punishing a minor for a situation that the minor has no control over,” Wheeler’s attorney, Nathan Ellis, said during the hearing Wednesday.

While the United States waives a visa requirement in the program, the travelers also waive their rights “to contest, other than on the basis of an application for asylum, any action for removal of any alien,” according to U.S. code. Wheeler has not made an asylum claim.

Arguing on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Wednesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Newman said that Wheeler came to the country under these waiver rules and that they should be applied to him no matter his age.

“The VWP (visa waiver program) entrant has benefited from the visa waiver program,” Newman said. “So, having received the benefit, that person is subject to the strictures of the waiver program.”

Newman also argued that the federal district court of Montana isn’t the right jurisdiction for a judge to restrain ICE from carrying out Wheeler’s removal. He said that case law requires it to be handled in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

U.S. District Judge Brian Morris heard the arguments Wednesday after issuing an order in November that blocked ICE from carrying out Wheeler’s removal, at least temporarily. Morris’ questions during the hearing emphasized that, although a minor, Wheeler was under his mother’s care when he signed up for the visa waiver program.

“Why didn’t the mother have the authority to execute the waiver on his behalf?” Morris asked.

Ellis argued that given the seriousness of the rights given up through waiver, there should be a “higher standard of protection” for minors. In a court brief, he wrote that Wheeler didn’t understand those rights at the time.

“There is no evidence that Dakota, at age 15, had the capacity to understand the complex legal consequences of the VWP waiver, which purports to waive all rights to contest removal, except through asylum,” Ellis wrote. “Likewise, there is no evidence that Dakota had any say in the matter.”

Questions about how Wheeler remained in Great Falls for so long seem to revolve around one place: The Rainbow senior living home, where Wheeler held a kitchen job for eight years despite his nonresident status.

“There was no I-9 on him,” Dena Schoolcraft, the former executive director at The Rainbow, told MTFP Wednesday. “He was always paid through a petty-cash account.”

An I-9 is an employment verification form that confirms an employee’s citizenship or legal status, allowing them to receive taxed wages.

Schoolcraft said that the CEO of the senior living center’s management company approved all payments, including the allegedly under-the-table payments to Wheeler. The Rainbow is operated by New Jersey-based Texoma Management, and its CEO is Charles Pinter.

Reached on Wednesday, Pinter said Wheeler faced an “unfortunate situation” but that he knew little about it. Asked how someone with Wheeler’s status could work for so long at The Rainbow, Pinter blamed a manager who recently departed, though he didn’t name the person.

“There was a manager, the main person who took care of it; she did the hiring and accepting,” Pinter said. “She no longer works for the company.”

Schoolcraft said she didn’t like the payment setup with Wheeler and was fired by Pinter in September.

No matter who approved payments to Wheeler, he remained employed at The Rainbow until his arrest on Nov. 5. Anderson, Wheeler’s mother, worked at The Rainbow before gaining lawful resident status in 2022 and continues to work there today.

Paige McAtee, Wheeler’s fiancée, said she met Wheeler while working as a caregiver at The Rainbow. They started dating early this year. Arrest records filed by ICE quote Wheeler as saying, “I have a wife and kids,” though he wasn’t yet married, and McAtee’s 2-year-old daughter isn’t Wheeler’s.

But, McAtee told MTFP, Wheeler has been a father to her daughter.

“She isn’t biologically his, but he’s been to her first birthday party and to her second birthday party,” McAtee said. “She calls him dad. That’s her dad.”

Now they’re expecting a child together next spring. She said they considered hiring an attorney about getting resident status, but the consultation was $350 and the hourly rates afterward were nearly as much. They decided to save up, she said.

McAtee described Wheeler as a good father and a reliable employee at The Rainbow over his eight years working there.

“He didn’t miss a single day, unless we went to my OB appointments,” she said.

Judge Morris didn’t issue a ruling from the bench but promised a decision soon. Wheeler has been in the Cascade County Detention Center since his Nov. 5 arrest.