The mother of a family of four undocumented immigrants who were arrested by U.S. Border agents while fleeing to Canada has told Newsweek they spent more than two weeks in a locked windowless cell.
“My four-year-old would wake up crying. She dreamed of running free in the park and going to McDonald’s,” Aracely told Newsweek.
Aracely is only being identified by her first name because she remains in a precarious situation in the United States.
“They reduced us to nothing when they didn’t believe us. They destroyed all our hopes, all our happiness that we would have a life of safety in Canada after so many years of fear. We are so afraid,” she said.
Newsweek has contacted Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for comment.
Why It Matters
The Trump administration is looking to remove millions of undocumented immigrants as part of a hardline strategy to carry out mass deportations.
The White House has said anyone living in the country without legal status is considered by the administration to be a “criminal.”
The Safe Third Country Agreement between Canada and the U.S. mandates that refugees must request asylum in the first safe country they reach. Canada typically turns back claimants arriving from the U.S. at land borders unless they meet specific exceptions—such as having a close family member legally residing in Canada.
What To Know
In March, the family crossed the Rainbow Bridge into Canada from the United States.
Aracely was accompanied by her partner and their two daughters, aged four and 14. Aracely, who is from El Salvador, intended to meet her brother, a Canadian citizen.
“We fled danger in El Salvador. Because I have a Canadian citizen brother living in Canada and we knew we qualified to make an asylum claim in Canada under the Safe Third Country Agreement, we decided to make our asylum claim at the Canadian border,” Aracely told Newsweek.
Canadian border officials denied the family entry and returned them to the United States, where they were held in detention at the U.S. port of entry in Niagara Falls, N.Y., for nearly two weeks, Aracley said.
Aracely and her common-law husband had spent years living in the United States without legal status. Concerned about the Trump administration’s strict immigration crackdown, they decided to leave and reunite with family in Canada.
“We were living in fear,” she said.
Aracely had documents she hoped would facilitate entry to Canada for her family—birth certificates proving her relationship to her brother.
The Canada Border Services Agency began reviewing Aracely’s documents. She said the officer focused on minor discrepancies in the names listed. Aracely’s birth certificate showed her father with one last name, while her brother’s document listed two. Although their mother’s last names matched, there were slight variations in her first name, though both began with the same letter, according to CBC News.
Border officials returned the family’s backpacks and escorted them back across the Rainbow Bridge. Aracely said U.S. CBP placed them in a holding cell with cots, a couch, and a television, where they remained for three days. If they needed the bathroom, they had to knock on the door to be escorted by officials.
They were then transferred to a windowless cell with four cots and a half wall separating the toilet and sink. Aracely said she and her husband waited until their daughters fell asleep before allowing themselves to cry.
She described the two weeks in detention as challenging. They were given frozen chicken sandwiches thawed by CBP officers in a microwave, but sometimes they were still partially frozen. They had no access to showers but were provided a camping-style shower bag for each person. During their detention, they were allowed to leave the cell three times to walk in a hallway.
On March 28, they were informed that CBSA officials would meet with them again.
CBSA officials once again expressed doubts about the authenticity of the family’s documents.
“They told us we had to be deported immediately to the U.S., that they had been very generous in entertaining our case a second time,” Aracely said.
The family was taken back to the cell at the Niagara Falls port of entry.
On April 1, a CBP officer informed them that Aracely’s partner was being transferred to a detention center in Batavia, N.Y. ahead of a deportation hearing in May. The family was reportedly only given three minutes to say goodbye.
“We were afraid that my husband and I could be separated from our young children and deported from the U.S. under Trump. But the exact thing we feared is now happening,” she said.
“We are honest people and we did our best to prove we qualify to enter Canada, but we were turned back.”
What People Are Saying
Aracely told CBS News: “My husband was taken away to a detention center. This is so inhumane and it is happening to other people too.”
Heather Neufeld, the family attorney in Canada, told Newsweek: “We pride ourselves on being a country that highly values human rights but our government is now complicit in handing asylum-seeking families over to the American authorities to suffer imprisonment and solitary confinement at ports of entry followed by rapid deportation with little due process. When our government clearly knows this is the fate of those handed back to the Americans, it is critical that a clear process exists to quickly enable reconsideration of any mistakes made by Canadian border services, and that Canada does not assist President Trump in his quest to deport asylum seekers.
“Likewise, the U.S. used to be seen as a place of new beginnings and fulfilling dreams. These detention policies and mass deportations are negatively affecting the global perception of the U.S. as a leader in justice and compassion.”
The Canada Border Services Agency told Newsweek it “does not provide comment or provide details on specific individual cases.”
What Happens Next
Aracely and her daughters are currently residing in a shelter in Buffalo, where she is required to check in with immigration authorities every week. Her deportation hearing is scheduled for Christmas Eve.
The post Family Arrested by US Border Agents While Trying to Relocate to Canada appeared first on Newsweek.
