Two US-born children and their mother reportedly fell into Trump’s immigration crackdown trap after the woman’s phone accidentally led the family trio to an international bridge to Canada, instead of a local Costco store near them. Custom agents detained the mother of two hailing from Guatemala – otherwise living in Southwest Detroit – and her kids in Detroit after the incident for almost a week, according to the Independent.
Michigan Immigrant Rights Centre’s senior managing attorney Ruby Robinson is representing her. Without revealing her identity, the lawyer has since confirmed that the woman in detention has been in the United States for about six years. While her daughters, aged 5 and 1, were born in the US, with their father living in Detroit, the woman reportedly does not have legal status.
Why was the Guatemalan woman and her children detained?
The woman and her daughters were riding in a vehicle being driven by her 19-year-old brother on March 8 when CBP agents stopped them. When she used a phone app to locate the nearest Costco, she failed to notice that the store popped up on the Canadian side of the bridge. Robinson further revealed during a Zoom call with reporters that the family eventually drove onto the bridge’s toll plaza. However, they stopped before they could pass the toll booths. Nonetheless, CBP agents stopped them. In a nearby building, the woman was questioned and fingerprinted. During her time there, she also signed a form disclosing that she entered the US illegally.
The nearly week-long detention compelled her to stay in a small windowless room, while she and her kids were given microwaveable food like ramen noodles and oatmeal. They could only leave the room to use the restroom and shower. Robinson divulged that agents warned her client that she would be deported. They are believed to have also told her to take her daughters with her back to Guatemala. Meanwhile, the woman’s brother, who also has no legal status in the US, was held in a different room. She only saw him in shackles in a hallway when she was going to the restroom.
Officials make a case for due process before deportation threats
The Detroit woman will be taken to immigration court for proceedings that will determine her future in the country, the Michigan Immigrant Rights Centre attorney said. The latest absurd development on the US deportation front comes after lawyers and other legal experts have repeatedly questioned whether AI is behind the new wave of erroneous visa revocations and self-deportation e-mails.
“Our neighbours and families should not be disappearing because they made a wrong turn,” US Rep Rashida Tlaib said. Additionally, Robinson, Tlaib and South California’s non-profit American Civil Liberties Union have firmly requested for more transparency on detentions by the US Customs and Border Protection. “We don’t know what exactly is happening. There’s a lack of transparency,” Democrat Tlaib added.
Detentions related to the northern border with Canada
The Detroit woman’s detention has surfaced as a relatively uncommon case involving the norther border with Canada as the US-Mexico border has been more of a focal point in these conversations. Nevertheless, as the US representative pointed out, more such detentions are reportedly occurring on the northern border.
CBP is believed to have told Rashida Tlaib last month that about over 200 people had been detained at the same location as Guatemalan woman’s case since January. More than 90% of these cases faced the brush with the immigration authorities after they mistakenly drove onto the bridge’s toll plaza. In addition to the latest case in focus, 12 more families had been held in custody in the same building.
US Customs and Border Protection responds
While Tlaib argued for due process, adding, “A wrong turn should not lead to a disappearance and an erosion of someone’s due process.” CBP Assistant Commissioner for Public Affairs Hilton Beckham has since also said in a statement that the woman admitted to illegally entering the US.
“When individuals violate immigration laws, their choices make them subject to detention and removal,” she said. “She admitted to unlawfully entering the U.S. in 2018. Per policy, CBP worked to find a suitable guardian for her US 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.”