Terrible luck: Avoiding an animal while on a road trip turned them into illegal immigrants and got them detained in the U.S.

A group of seven — two British couples and their children — were on a road trip in Canada earlier this month. To avoid hitting an animal, they crossed the border from Canada into the United States and were subsequently arrested as illegal immigrants. They have complained about being treated harshly by U.S. authorities.

On October 3, David Connors, 30, and his wife Aileen, 24, were driving in the Vancouver area when they swerved onto a side road to avoid an animal. A police officer subsequently stopped them and informed them that they were in Washington State, U.S., and proceeded to arrest them. According to their lawyer, they had no idea they had crossed the border at the time.

The Connors detailed “the most terrifying experience of our lives” in a statement released by their lawyer. According to the statement, the couple was stopped by a police officer who neither read them their rights nor allowed them to simply turn around and return to Canada.

According to the statement, they were separated immediately after being arrested. Connors was placed in a male-only holding cell, while Aileen and their three-month-old son were held in a female cell. Later, Connors was taken to a detention center in Tacoma, Washington, while his wife and child were taken to a budget hotel near the international airport. The next morning, they were flown to Pennsylvania. On the fifth day, the couple was brought to the “Berks Family Residential Center” (BFRC).

Aileen complained that the facility was “very cold,” with staff refusing to turn on the heating until the end of the following month. She was told to put a hat on the baby to keep warm; the “disgusting” blankets smelled “like a dead dog.” According to the couple, the baby’s skin became irritated and spotty, and the infant’s eyes appeared to be infected.

Aileen said they were treated like criminals, stripped of their rights, and that the actions of the U.S. government would traumatize them for the rest of their lives. However, U.S. immigration authorities denied the allegations of “abuse.”

(China Times)