Wrong turn leads to hundreds of immigrant arrests at the Detroit-Canada border bridge

Warning: this story contains description of a suicide attempt.

The road that leads to the Ambassador Bridge, which connects Detroit to Canada, is notoriously difficult to navigate, even for locals. Signage is confusing, perennial construction in the vicinity doesn’t help, and often Detroiters accidentally drive onto it and into a Customs and Border Protection area. And as NPR has reported, for immigrants without legal status a wrong turn onto the bridge can devolve into a nightmare: Days on end in detention in facilities alleged to be unfit for children, without access to legal counsel.

Data released to NPR on Wednesday by the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center (MIRC) details an inquiry by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D- Mich.) who visited the bridge and the nearby CBP office. The inquiry reveals that since January, 213 people have been detained at the bridge, including families with children. According to Rep. Talib, 90% of the detentions were people who made a wrong turn and drove onto the bridge by accident.

In the inquiry, CBP told Tlaib that 40 of the detainees were “known Tren de Aragua,” Venezuelan gang members. Of those detained there have been a dozen families – one family was held for 12 days, with two American citizen children. Lawyers with the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center say they do not currently know the whereabouts of the children, and have requested further information.

CBP officials also informed Tlaib about a suicide attempt at the office space last week: A Venezuelan man who had been held there for three days was in a holding cell when officers observed him trying to hang himself and intervened. He was taken to the hospital and later brought back and then handed over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Michigan Immigrant Rights Center says they do not know the man’s whereabouts or condition.

In March, NPR broke the story of Sarahi, a Guatemalan woman who was held in detention near the Ambassador bridge with her two young American citizen children. She requested NPR withhold her last name because she is in the U.S. without papers.

Sarahi had accidentally driven onto the Ambassador Bridge while en route to Costco, and she was arrested by immigration officials and taken to an office building nearby. According to Ruby Robinson of the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, Sarahi was being held in a CBP office building next to the Ambassador Bridge, a building that is now being used for detention.

Sarahi says what followed her arrest “felt like a kidnapping.” She told NPR that her family was placed in a windowless office space near the bridge. For close to six days, she said they were given no access to a lawyer, told to sleep on cots without proper accommodations for the children (no diapers or appropriate food). She says a few days in, her children began to get sick, and there was no first aid available.

NPR has been receiving tips about immigrants and their children detained at the office space by the Ambassador Bridge for months – people who accidentally drive onto the toll plaza, as well as migrants seeking asylum in Canada who are turned back and end up detained in these office spaces for extended periods of time. But lawyers with the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center and ACLU of Michigan were unable to locate people in detention or who had been held there.

A major concern lawyers and immigration advocates have raised is that this facility is simply not meant for long term detention, much less for children. In her interview with NPR, Sarahi spoke of a windowless room with cots, no diapers, clothes or food. When her daughter’s fever started rising and she asked for medication, she says she was told there was none. Rep. Tlaib says CBP told her that holding families in this area was a “brand new situation,” which had not been done during previous administrations. In her visit, Rep. Tlaib was shown a supply room with diapers, clothes, toys, snacks and told EMT’s are on site.

Sarahi told NPR she was not given access to a lawyer for nearly six days. Tlaib says that CBP told her that there are no secure private areas for attorneys to meet with clients.

Last week the ACLU of Michigan and the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center placed a Freedom of Information Act request for further information about conditions and detainees who have been held near the bridge.

If you have immigration tips you can contact our tip line, on Whatsapp and Signal: 202-713-6697 or reporter Jasmine Garsd: jgarsd@npr.org  

If you or someone you know is considering suicide, call or text 988 to reach the suicide and crisis hotline.