US border agents arrest a family fleeing to Canada

US: The mother of a family of four illegal immigrants who were detained by U.S. Border officials during their escape to Canada told the media that they were held in a windowless, sealed cage for more than two weeks.

“My four-year-old used to wail when he woke up.” She wanted to go to McDonald’s and run freely in the park,” Aracely told the media report.

People only refer to Aracely by her first name because she is still in a vulnerable position in the United States.

“When they didn’t believe us, they dismissed us as nothing. After so many years of anxiety, they shattered all of our joys and dreams that we would live in safety in Canada. “We’re terrified,” she remarked.

As part of a harsh plan to carry out mass deportations, the Trump administration wants to remove millions of illegal immigrants.

According to the White House, the government views everybody who is in the nation without legal status as a “criminal.”

According to the Safe Third Country Agreement between the United States and Canada, refugees must apply for asylum in the first safe nation they arrive in. Unless they fulfill certain requirements, such as having a close relative who is a legal resident of Canada, Canada normally rejects applicants who arrive from the United States at land borders.

The family traveled from the United States to Canada in March across the Rainbow Bridge.

Along with Aracely were her boyfriend and their two kids, ages four and fourteen. El Salvadorian native Aracely planned to meet her Canadian-born brother.

“We left El Salvador to avoid harm. We chose to file for asylum at the Canadian border because we knew we were eligible to do so under the Safe Third Country Agreement and because I have a brother who is a Canadian citizen residing there,” Aracely told the media report.

According to Aracely, the family was detained for over two weeks at the U.S. port of entry in Niagara Falls, New York, when Canadian border authorities refused them admission and sent them back to the United States.

Without legal status, Aracely and her common-law spouse have lived in the US for years. They decided to depart and join their family in Canada because they were worried about the Trump administration’s harsh immigration crackdown.

Her words, “We were living in fear.” Aracely possessed birth certificates attesting to her kinship to her brother, which she thought would help her family’s admission into Canada.

The Canada Border Services Agency examined Aracely’s paperwork. According to her, the officer focused on minor variations in the names on the list. While her brother’s birth certificate contained two last names, Aracely’s revealed her father with only one. CBC News reported that although their mother’s last names were identical, their first names differed somewhat, even though they each started with the same letter.

The family was taken back over the Rainbow Bridge by border authorities, who also gave back their bags. According to Aracely, they spent three days in a detention cell furnished with cots, a sofa, and a television by U.S. CBP. Authorities had to knock on the door to escort them to the restroom.

They then found themselves in a windowless cell with four beds and a partial wall between the sink and toilet. Aracely said that before letting herself weep, she and her husband waited until their girls had gone to sleep.

The two weeks she spent in custody were difficult, she said. CBP officials provided them with frozen chicken sandwiches that they had thawed in a microwave, albeit occasionally they were still half frozen. They were given a camping-style shower bag per person, but they were not allowed access to showers. They were permitted to stroll in a corridor three times while they were being held.

They received notification that they will meet again with CBSA authorities on March 28.

Once again, CBSA authorities questioned if the family’s paperwork was real.

“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.

At the port of entry in Niagara Falls, the family was returned to the cell.

They were notified by a CBP official on April 1 that Aracely’s boyfriend was being moved to a Batavia, New York, detention facility in preparation for a May deportation hearing. According to reports, the family was only allowed three minutes to say their goodbyes.

“Under Trump, we feared that my spouse and I may be deported from the United States and separated from our little children. However, the very thing we were afraid of is now taking place,” she said.

“As honest individuals, we made every effort to demonstrate our eligibility for entry into Canada, yet we faced rejection.”

“They took my husband away to a detention center,” Aracely told CBS News. This is really cruel, and other individuals are also experiencing it.

“We take great pride in being a nation that values human rights, but our government is now complicit in handing over asylum-seeking families to the American authorities to suffer imprisonment and solitary confinement at ports of entry followed by rapid deportation with little due process,” Heather Neufeld, a family lawyer in Canada, told the media report.

It is crucial that there be a clear procedure in place to enable a prompt reconsideration of any errors made by Canadian border services and that Canada refrain from supporting President Trump in his efforts to deport asylum seekers, especially when our government is well aware that this is the fate of those who are returned to the United States.

Similarly, the United States was formerly seen to be a land of fresh starts and realized aspirations. The United States’ reputation as a leader in justice and compassion is suffering as a result of these detention practices and large deportations.

The Canada Border Services Agency informed Newsweek that it “does not provide comment or detail on specific individual cases.”

Currently, Aracely and her girls are staying at a shelter in Buffalo, where she must report to immigration officials once a week. They have scheduled her deportation hearing for Christmas Eve.