Undocumented mother in Detroit detained by CBP after accidentally turning onto Ambassador Bridge
Detroiters often make the mistake of accidentally driving onto the Ambassador Bridge, a one-way toll road connecting the U.S. and Canada.
For Sarahi, a mother of two, that error turned her life upside down.
Immigrating from Guatemala as a child, Sarahi's attorney, Ruby Robinson, says she doesn't have legal status and was immediately detained by customs and border protection when she reached the security checkpoint, along with her two daughters.
"She wanted to go to Costco, and she put Costco into the GPS, or her family member did who was driving, and it chose the Costco in Windsor, and so they followed the directions," said Robinson, the senior managing attorney at Michigan Immigrant Rights Center. "Being detained with your children for five days is pretty traumatic and carries a lot of trauma for her, for her children."
While Sarahi is undocumented, her two girls, ages 1 and 5, are both U.S. citizens.
Miriam Aukerman, senior staff attorney with ACLU Michigan, says the family didn't have access to legal counsel for almost a week and were held in unacceptable conditions.
"I find it absolutely appalling that U.S. citizen children, any children, are being held in these conditions that aren't fit for adults, much less children, and that CBP won't even tell us what is happening," said Aukerman.
In a statement to CBS News Detroit, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Assistant Commissioner Hilton Beckham said, "When individuals violate immigration laws, their choices make them subject to detention and removal. In this case, an illegal alien was encountered at the Detroit Ambassador Bridge after driving into Canada without travel documents. 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."
Robinson says Sarahi made that decision after her children started to get sick.
"At first, she didn't want to separate from her children, because she thought she would be deported, and she didn't want to be separated from them, but when the medical care was unavailable to her, she wanted her kids to get better," said Robinson.
In response to Sarahi's case, the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center and ACLU Michigan wrote a letter to CBP's Detroit port, urging information on detention conditions and steps being taken to avoid future situations.
You can read the letter below:
ACLU Michigan sends letter on detention of families with children at CBP Detroit by CBS News Detroit on Scribd
"We believe that this is the tip of the iceberg; this story, this one horrible, horrible incident, is symptomatic of many, many other families that are experiencing trauma," said Aukerman.
"We want transparency. We want meaningful oversight. We want access, people to be able to access counsel, and for us to be able to access them," said Robinson.
Robinson says the woman has been released and has a court date set with immigration officials in June.
