The panels inform drivers of the border crossing of the United States Ambassador Bridge in Detroit, Michigan.
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Warning: This story contains a description of a suicide attempt.
The road that leads to the Ambassador bridge, which links Detroit to Canada, is notoriously difficult to sail, even for the inhabitants. The signaling is confusing, the nearby perennial construction does not help, and often the detectors accidentally lead to it and in a customs and border protection zone. And as NPR has reported, for immigrants without legal status, a poor turn on the bridge can turn into a nightmare: final days in detention in alleged establishments unfit for children, without access to a legal advisor.
A press conference Thursday held by representative Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Michigan Immigrant Rights Center and Michigan Aclu have detailed conclusions on the bridge and a nearby CBP office space. Tlaib reported that he had been told that since January, 213 people have been detained at the bridge, including families with children. At least 90% of detentions were people who made a bad turn and led to the deck by accident.
Citing NPR reports on detentions, Tlaib said “our neighbors and our family should not disappear because of a bad turn”.
In the investigation, Tlaib says that the CBP told him that 40 of the detainees were “known Tren of Aragua”, members of the Venezuelan gang. Among the detained people, there were a dozen families – a family took place for 12 days, with two children American citizens. Lawyers from Michigan Immigrant Rights Center say they do not currently know where children are and have asked more information.
Tlaib also says that CBP officials also informed him of a suicide attempt two weeks ago in a nearby detention site on the same border: a Venezuelan who had been held there for three days was in a detention cell when the police observed him trying to hang themselves and intervened. The man was taken to the hospital then brought back and then given to immigration and the application of customs. Michigan Immigrant Rights Center says that they do not know the place or the state of man.
In MarchNPR has broken the story of Sarahi, a Guatemalan woman who was detained near the Ambassador bridge with her two young American citizens. She asked NPR to refuse her surname because she is in the US undocumented.
Sarahi had accidentally led on the bridge of the ambassador when he was on the road to Costco, and she was arrested by immigration officials and led to an office building nearby. According to Ruby Robinson of Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, Sarahi was detained in an office building in the CBP next to the Ambassador bridge, a building that is now used for detention.
Sarahi says what followed her arrest “looked like an abduction”. She told NPR that her family had been placed in a windowless office space near the bridge. For almost six days, she said that he did not have access to a lawyer, said sleeping on beds without appropriate accommodation for children (no layers or appropriate food). She says that a few days, her children started to fall sick and there was no first aid.
The NPR has received advice on immigrants and their children detained in offices by the Ambassador bridge for months – people who accidentally lead to the toll square, as well as migrants looking for asylum in Canada who have returned and find themselves detained in these office spaces for long periods. But lawyers for Michigan Immigrant Rights Center and Michigan Aclu could not locate people in detention or who had been detained there.
During Thursday’s press conference Miriam Aukerman, Michigan Aclu’s principal lawyer, said detention on the site had been “a full information hole”. She also said that “it is naive to think that if we tolerate detentions from non-citizens, the government will not the same for citizens”.
A great concern of lawyers and immigration defenders has raised is that this establishment is simply not intended for long -term detention, and even less for children. In her interview with NPR, Sarahi spoke of a windowless room with beds, no diapers, clothing or food. When her daughter’s fever started to go up and asked for medication, she told her that there wasn’t. The Tlaib representative says that CBP told him that the holding of families in this area was a “brand new situation”, which had not been done during previous administrations. During his visit, the representative Tlaib says that it was shown in a supply room with diapers, clothes, toys, snacks and that the EMT was on site.
Sarahi told NPR that she did not have access to a lawyer for almost six days. Tlaib says that CBP told him that there were no secure private areas for lawyers to meet customers.
Last week, Michigan ACLU and Michigan Immigrant Rights Center set a law on information law for more information on the conditions and prisoners who were detained near the bridge.
If you have immigration advice, you can contact our advanced line, on WhatsApp and Signal: 202-713-6697 or Reporter Jasmine Garsd: jgarsd@npr.org
If you or someone you know are considering suicide, call or send an SMS 988 to reach the hotline of suicide and the crisis.
