British couple with a baby say they crossed by mistake from Canada to the US: the Border Patrol stopped them and now they are in a 'cooler' | Univision News Events

Two couples and their three young children were driving near the US-Canada border on October 3 during a visit to Vancouver when an animal showed up on the road forcing them to deviate unexpectedly. The officer who stopped them informed them that they had crossed the border.

This was the time when the family turned their vacation trip into "the scariest experience of our lives." So says the statement of David Connors, 30 and his wife Eileen, 24, who were arrested in the state of Washington along with their three-month-old baby. The statement is part of a complaint that was filed Friday by her lawyer before the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security.

In the complaint, Eileen Connors alleges that her entire family, including her 3-month-old son, ended up being held at the Berks Family Residential Center in Leesport, Pennsylvania, where they have spent more than a week living in "dirty" and "cold" conditions.

In the affidavit, Connors describes that "we will never forget the experience after being traumatized by what the US government has done to us." We have been treated as criminals, stripped of our rights … it is without a doubt the worst experience we have lived. "

In response to the statements, the detention center has reported that detained families "are provided with a safe and humane environment as they go through the immigration process." They also clarified that "reports of abuse or inhuman conditions in BFRC are unequivocally false," officials said.

However, Eileen Connors alleges that the abuse began much earlier, when the family was arrested by the US officer when her husband David and her cousin, who were driving at the time, were arrested.

Bridget Cambria, a family lawyer from the Pennsylvania People's Justice Center (Village), said that in the text Eileen wrote, the officer informed them that they had crossed an international border and that they did not read their rights and ignored the pleas of the family who had crossed without knowing it by saying that they never intended to enter the country during their trip, despite having visas. When the family asked the officer if they could just turn around and return, he denied them, Connors wrote.

Eileen and her baby were separated from her husband and held in a "very cold" cell at a station that the Border Patrol has in the state of Washington.

Connors described that the food ration was small and looked "not even suitable for animals."

The Connors were held incommunicado without knowing where they would be taken. Eileen did not allow her son to lie on the "disgusting" floor where they slept, he had to put his little son next to her, on his stomach, to try not to feel the cold of the floor.

"The idea and the memory that our baby has to sleep in a dirty cell will haunt us forever," says the statement.

The next day immigration officials conditioned the family to be released if they provided a contact living in the US. Then everything changed. The Connors were told that they would not leave downtown so they were put in a van "as if they had kidnapped us," the statement says.

David Connors was taken to a detention center in Tacoma, Washington, while Eileen and her baby were taken to a hotel near the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

The first relief came. Eileen thought that everything would change that morning and they would return to Canada or to the United Kingdom, however, the officers did not tell them where they would take them, Connors wrote.

The family took a flight but that relief lasted little. When they got off the plane they were in Pennsylvania, on the other side of the country. His destiny was the Berks Family Residential Center, (BFRC) an installation that human rights defenders have denounced as a "prison for babies," according to the newspaper Philadelphia Inquirer.

The other couple, who had been traveling with the Connors and their two-year-old twins, were also transported to the Berks Center, one of three immigrant detention centers in the US that can accommodate families.

From the moment the Connors were put in 'the refrigerators' of the state of Washington, Eileen Connors wrote that he worried that his son, who does not yet have a complete vaccine scheme, could get sick.

Eileen Connors said she had to bathe her baby on a sofa in an office with a towel and soap because the tub she had been given was too small and was "dirty" as well as being "broken." As if that were not enough, he says that the baby was left without clothes for several hours while the center staff washed her, according to the statement.

The couple wrote that "the blankets and sheets" in the room had a smell "like that of a dead dog," so Eileen Connors did not use them for fear that her son would get sick.

When the couple asked how they would keep the baby who had a cold wrapped up, the staff told them to put on a hat and gloves that were provided. The center officials refused to turn on the heating because they said they would do so until next month.

"My baby can't wear a hat and gloves all the time, he feels uncomfortable and starts crying."

The baby's skin now looks rough and stained. On Friday the son of the Connors woke up with his left eye swollen and teary.

The center officials told the young couple that their son was "a little young" to be in the center and that if they wanted they could sign some papers to allow them to be separated from the parents, the statement says.

Eileen Connors not only got angry but now she is frightened by the simple idea that at any time the officers can take her son away. "Since then I can't sleep thinking that someone can come in and take my son out of my arms," ​​Connors wrote.

The family was not allowed to call their embassy and it was thanks to their relatives that the diplomatic headquarters learned of their detention until October 7.

It was at that time, according to Eileen Connors' testimony, that the family situation began to improve. She noted that the staff began cleaning the premises and provided a pen and a small tub for her unbroken baby.

"Here they have treated us like criminals, they have stripped us of our rights and they have lied to us," said Eileen Connors. "We have been treated unfairly from day one, it is without a doubt the worst experience we have lived."

The lawyer said Monday in a statement to the newspaper The Washington Post that the Connors hope that they will soon be released, but what bothers him most is the "so extreme" way in which the family has applied the law when he was on vacation with his son.

"We are traumatized … this would never happen in the United Kingdom to US citizens, or anyone else, because people there are treated with dignity," says the statement of Eileen Connors.