A small ditch separates Avenue 0 in Canada from Boundary Road, near Blaine, Washington.
(CNN) — A British family who say they accidentally crossed the border into the United States while trying “to avoid an animal on the road” has filed a complaint with the the Department of Homeland Security over their detention, saying they have been “traumatized.”
The family — two adult couples, 2-year-old twin girls, and a 3-month-old boy — was stopped by a Border Patrol agent on the night of October 2, after their vehicle crossed a ditch separating British Columbia from Washington in a rural area near the city of Blaine.
The family’s lawyers say they had been vacationing in Canada, and they described the excursion into the United States as a “very brief detour” forced by a road hazard — the unspecified animal.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection disputes that claim, saying it appeared the family was trying to get into the United States undetected. The group was carrying $16,600 in Canadian cash, one official noted.
CBP released a statement on Tuesday evening concerning the incident:
“A vehicle was observed via remote video surveillance system turning west onto Avenue 0 in British Columbia, Canada, at approximately 9 p.m., Oct. 2. The vehicle then turned south and entered the U.S. illegally, by slowly and deliberately driving through a ditch onto Boundary Road in Blaine, Washington. The vehicle traveled west on Boundary Road continuing on the United States side and was pulled over by a Border Patrol agent a short time later. The seven occupants of the vehicle, who are citizens of the United Kingdom, were arrested at approximately 9:13 p.m. … for illegally entering the United States without inspection.”
One of the couples — the parents of the baby — has been identified as David Connors, 30, and Eileen Connors, 26. A statement by the family identified the other adult man as David Connors’ cousin, Michael Connors.
The family was initially held in Lynden, Washington. In a sworn statement, the family described the baby being forced to sleep on a “filthy concrete floor” in “frigid temperatures” during their first night in custody. They said they were given inadequate blankets that “smelled like a dead dog.”
Canada refused to accept the family back across the border. ICE says they are now being held at the Berks Family Residential Center in Pennsylvania, one of three family residential centers in the United States.
A Border Patrol official told CNN that the two adult men in the group had previously applied to enter the US under the ESTA Visa Waiver Program, but their were applications refused in March 2018. The official did not the reason for the refusal.
The family’s lawyer, Bridget Cambria of the People’s Justice Center, said her clients are just tourists who took a wrong turn. She said the cash they were carrying — worth about $12,600 U.S. — was not out of line for such a trip. “It just corroborates they were a large family on vacation,” she said.
Last year, Cedella Roman, a 19-year-old French woman who had been visiting her mother in British Columbia, was detained for two weeks after she crossed the border while running on the beach south of White Rock.
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