Detroit woman may be deported after taking wrong turn at Canada-U.S. border

Canadian and American flags fly near the Ambassador Bridge at the Canada-USA border crossing in Windsor, Ont. on Saturday, March 21, 2020. The federal government appears to have relaxed restrictions at the Canada-U.S. border that would have made it impossible for first-year university students from the United States to enter the country. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Rob Gurdebeke

DETROIT — A woman from Guatemala who lives in Detroit says she and her two U.S.-born children were held for nearly a week by U.S. customs agents after a phone app’s directions to the nearest Costco led them to an international bridge connecting the city to Canada.

She now faces removal proceedings in June in immigration court, according to Ruby Robinson, senior managing attorney with the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center.

On Thursday, Robinson, U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, and the ACLU of Michigan called for more accountability and transparency by U.S. Customs and Border Protection on detentions along the nation’s northern border with Canada.

“Our neighbours and families should not be disappearing because they made a wrong turn,” Tlaib said.

Though the northern border sees far fewer encounters with migrants than the U.S.-Mexico border, the woman’s case is not uncommon, according to Tlaib.

The Michigan Democrat said she was told on March 21 by CBP that about 213 people had been detained at the same location since January, with more than 90 per cent mistakenly driving onto the bridge’s toll plaza. Tlaib also said she was told 12 families had been detained in the same building where Robinson’s client was held.

“We don’t know what exactly is happening. There’s a lack of transparency,” she said, adding that similar detentions likely are occurring elsewhere along the 5,525-mile (8,891-kilometre) northern border.

But Customs and Border Protection said agents encountered just over 200 undocumented people from Jan. 20 to March 21 at crossings in Detroit. About half were detained and turned over to ICE after secondary processing was complete, according to a CBP spokesman.

The Michigan Immigrant Rights Center is representing the Guatemalan woman. Robinson declined to release her name or age, only confirming that she has been in the U.S. about six years, but has no legal status. Her daughters, ages 5 and 1, were born in the U.S. Their father lives in Detroit.

She lives in Southwest Detroit, a neighborhood with a large Hispanic population that sits in the shadow of the Ambassador Bridge and just across the Detroit River from Windsor, Ontario.

On March 8, the woman and her daughters were in a vehicle being driven by her 19-year-old brother. She used a phone app to find the nearest Costco and didn’t realize the closest store was on the Canadian side of the bridge, Robinson said during a Zoom call with reporters.

They drove onto the bridge’s toll plaza, but didn’t go past the toll booths. They were stopped by CBP agents and taken to a nearby building where she was questioned and fingerprinted. She also signed a form stating she entered the U.S. illegally.

She said agents told her she was going to be deported and encouraged her to take her daughters with her back to Guatemala, according to Robinson.

They were held in a small, windowless room, slept on cots and given microwaveable food like ramen noodles and oatmeal. They were only allowed to leave the room to use the restroom and shower, she said.

By Monday night, March 10, her youngest daughter began developing a fever. The woman said agents told her they had no medication for the child. The older daughter would soon come down with a cough.

While going to the restroom that Tuesday, the family finally saw her brother in a hallway. The woman said he was in shackles. Her brother also has no legal status in the U.S. and works as a roofer with the father of her children, she said.

On Wednesday night, the girls were turned over to the woman’s sister-in-law. She was released the next day.

“When individuals violate immigration laws, their choices make them subject to detention and removal,” CBP Assistant Commissioner for Public Affairs Hilton Beckham said in a statement. “She admitted to unlawfully entering the U.S. in 2018. Per policy, CBP worked to find a suitable guardian for her U.S. citizen children. However, she initially chose to keep them with her, prolonging the detention period. Once the children were placed with a guardian, she was transferred to ICE.”

Such detentions are part of a pattern where short-term facilities are being used long-term by CBP, said Tlaib, who serves on the U.S. House Oversight Committee.

“The erosion of due process is a threat to all of us — no matter your name, no matter immigration status,” Tlaib said. “A wrong turn should not lead to a disappearance and an erosion of someone’s due process.”

Corey Williams, The Associated Press