Mom Detained in Detroit After Wrong Turn at Border

A quick search for a Costco turned into a nearly weeklong detention for a Guatemalan mother and her children at the US-Canada border in Detroit after her phone's map app sent her to a bridge that connects the Michigan city to Canada. On March 8, the Guatemalan woman, her 19-year-old brother, and her two US-born daughters, ages 5 and 1, were trying to get to the nearest Costco, not realizing it was across the border. They entered the toll plaza of the Ambassador Bridge but did not cross into Canada, the AP reports. US Customs and Border Protection agents stopped them, took them to a nearby building, questioned and fingerprinted the woman, and had her sign a form stating she had entered the US illegally.

She has lived in the US for about six years without legal status; her daughters' father resides in Detroit. The woman and her daughters were detained in a small, windowless room with cots, which they could only leave to use the restroom or shower. The woman did not see her brother, who also lacks legal status in the US, until three days later; he was in shackles in a hallway. Both of the young girls became ill, and the woman was told there was no medication for them. On their fifth day of detention, the children were released to their mother's sister-in-law, and the woman herself was released the next day. She faces deportation proceedings and has a court date in June.

The Michigan Immigrant Rights Center is handling the case, and is not disclosing the woman's name. "Our neighbors and families should not be disappearing because they made a wrong turn," said US Rep. Rashida Tlaib, whose district includes Detroit, in a statement. Tlaib says she discovered last month that more than 200 people have been detained at the same location since January, and more than 90% of those people entered the toll plaza accidentally, CBS News reports. An official with CBP countered, "When individuals violate immigration laws, their choices make them subject to detention and removal." (This content was created with the help of AI. Read our AI policy.)