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A British family visiting Canada was taken into custody earlier this month after accidentally taking a wrong turn and crossing the northern border into the U.S., news reports said Monday.
Eileen Connors, 24, her husband, David Connors, 30, and his cousin, Michael Connors, were visiting family in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Oct. 3 when they said they unintentionally drove into the United States. Other family members, including 2-year-old twins and the couple's 3-month-old baby boy, also were in the car.
Michael Connors said he was driving close to the U.S.-Canada border when an animal suddenly appeared, and he swerved onto an unmarked road to avoid hitting it, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Almost immediately, the family was surrounded by police cars and Border Patrol agents.
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"They had no idea they had crossed any boundary," the family's lawyer, Bridget Cambria, told the news outlet. "They had no idea they were even in the United States. They were just trying to get back to their hotel."
Cambria said an officer told the family, "You crossed an international border."
"We asked if we couldn’t simply turn around and the officer said no," Eileen wrote in a sworn statement, obtained by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "We kept repeating we did not want to be here. We were detained anyway and treated in a way that no human deserves to be treated."
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials told Fox News that the family has had access to their consulate while in custody, which the family members have denied.
After being taken into custody, the family members were transported to a facility near the Canadian border. While there, Eileen said she and the 3-month-old were forced to sleep on a cold "dirty floor" with thin metallic-looking blankets.
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"The memory of our little baby having to sleep on a dirty floor of a cell will haunt us forever," Eileen reportedly wrote.
The following day, they said officials initially told them they could be released into the custody of a family member in the U.S., but then they were informed they were not being released, and instead had to remain in detention. Eileen said they were forced from cells into a van in a scene she described as being similar to "an abduction or kidnapping."
David was taken to another detention center, and Eileen and her child were brought to a Red Roof Inn in Seattle. On Oct. 5, the family was taken to a Seattle airport and flown to Pennsylvania, where they were processed at the Berks Detention Center in Leesport.
The family detention center, an ICE facility, is one of three in the country. It's often described as dirty, and Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf during the summer called the facility "wrong," "immoral" and "inhumane."
Eileen said that since being held at Berks, her baby has developed blotchy skin and an apparent eye infection.
“We will be traumatized for the rest of our lives by what the United States government has done to us,” the mother wrote in her statement. “We have been treated like criminals here, stripped of our rights, and lied to...This would never happen in the United Kingdom to U.S. citizens, or anyone else, because people there are treated with dignity.”
ICE confirmed to Fox News on Tuesday that Eileen and David Connors were being held at Berks, but disputed claims that conditions at the facility were inhumane.
"[Berks Family Residential Center] provides a safe and humane environment for families as they go through the immigration process," ICE officials said in a statement. "BFRC supports all sanctioned local, state, and federal investigations into the safety and welfare of our residents. [Reports] of abuse or inhumane conditions at BFRC are unequivocally false."
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Cambria, the family's lawyer, said the family most likely will be deported back to the U.K. She said, however, no such paperwork has been shared with the family and it's unclear what charges have been filed against the Connors.
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