(OZARKFIRST) SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — A Missouri State University grants accounting manager is in custody in the Greene County Jail after he was arrested by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Wednesday afternoon, according to Greene County Jail records.
Missouri State University Public Relations Strategist Emily Letterman said in a message to Ozarks First that the university is aware Paul Essel has been detained, but it has not received any official communication from any law enforcement agencies on the matter.
“Mr. Essel is a valued, long-standing member of the Missouri State University community,” Letterman wrote. “He attended Missouri State as a student and obtained two graduate degrees between the years 2008-14. He began working for the university while pursuing his degree and continued his employment after graduation. Since that time, he has remained an employee in good standing.”
Letterman also said the university followed its standard hiring procedures and federal law, including a criminal background check and verification of his eligibility to work in the country. She said the university is continuing to work to better understand the situation and determine appropriate action.
Dominque Moore, the president of the Southern Missouri Immigration Alliance, said she became aware of the situation after Essel’s child went to school yesterday and told his teacher his father had been arrested. Moore said the teacher contacted someone who works closely with the SMI Alliance.
“That got the ball rolling — this realization that this is a high-level employee at Missouri State University,” Moore said.
Moore said multiple students of Essel’s have reached out to her about the incident.
“They all say the same thing: that he is a wonderful human being, an upstanding citizen,” she said. “They can’t believe this is happening.”
According to state records, Essel had minor traffic violations and credit card collection efforts in 2021 and 2025. Federal records indicate that Essel had been working against his removal from the country for over a decade. He came to the U.S. as a student and attempted to gain citizenship through marriage. The petition was denied in 2012. A separate marriage petition was approved in 2018, but the state argued that following the ruling, Essel failed to take appropriate steps to adjust his legal status.
Essel’s arrest comes after the Greene County Sheriff’s Office entered a 287g agreement with ICE on Sept. 24, which provides local law enforcement officers with access to ICE resources and training. Former Greene County Sheriff Jim Arnott told Ozarks First earlier this year that he saw no purpose in the agreement since there was an office for Homeland Security within miles of the GCSO.