Four theatre volunteers barred from entry to U.S.
Women aged 67 to 75 were held for hours, fingerprinted, sent back
Vicky Giroux: retired school teacher, arts volunteer, Public Enemy No.1.
After volunteering for years at Detroit’s Fisher Theatre as ushers, Giroux and three other Canadian seniors were stunned Sunday when they were suddenly detained at the U.S. border. They were held for nearly three hours, photographed and fingerprinted before being sent back to Canada.
“I have my picture taken, I’m fingerprinted, I’m kind of embarrassed about it all,” said Giroux, 67, a Tecumseh resident who volunteered at the theatre without incident for 25 years. “I turn around to go sit down and everybody in the room is looking at me, thinking, ‘Oh, what did she do?’ And I thought, here I am, I am the face of crime in America.”
Chief Ken Hammond, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, didn’t respond Monday to requests for comment.
Before Sunday, the women said they never had a problem. That all changed when they rolled up to a U.S. customs booth at the tunnel around 12:15 p.m.
The four women, including Giroux — who went despite still recovering from cancer surgery — were scheduled to usher for a performance of The Color Purple. The show started at 2 p.m., but they needed to be there by 12:30 p.m.
“We always are upfront about what we’re doing,” said LaSalle’s Gail Peters, 69, who volunteered for 10 years. “I don’t lie when I go there because that’s their country. They have the absolute power, so I am always honest and tell them exactly what we’re doing, volunteer ushering. They’ve never said anything.”
This time, the officer sent them to secondary inspection and they were ushered inside to the waiting room with about 50 other people. At first, the ladies weren’t overly concerned. They chatted in the waiting room, wondering if they might be a little late.
After being detained for nearly three frustrating hours, Peters said she felt the need to point out that she and her arts-loving friends, who range in age from 67 to 75, aren’t exactly hardened criminals.
“I pointed that out when I saw they were fingerprinting my friend,” said Peters, a retired teacher.
“I was really upset. I thought, what on earth, you know? So when I went up to talk to him. I said, ‘This is very demeaning.’ Here we are in a waiting room with all these people watching us being fingerprinted like we’re criminals. I said we’ve done nothing wrong. We’re not criminals, we’re upstanding citizens. We’re retirees. We’re trying to support the arts and enjoy a play or two in our retirement.”
Shortly before 3 p.m., the group was finally sent back to Canada. Giroux said a Canada Customs officer told them the issue started with 200 Canadians volunteering at the Grand Prix last summer.
“Someone questioned why are all these Canadians
The group that I usher with, we take this commitment seriously ... we don’t want to leave them hanging.
coming over and getting to see the Grand Prix for free when all kinds of Americans would like to see it for free too,” said Giroux.
She said the officer told them that only religious and non-profit groups in the U.S. are allowed to use non-American volunteers.
A Fisher Theatre representative refused Monday to comment or say how many Canadians volunteer with the organization. He claimed it was for “security reasons.”
Giroux, who still isn’t feeling well after cancer surgery, said she just should have listened to her gut and stayed home.
“But when you make a commitment to the Fisher, they expect that you be there, and if you can’t be there you have to find somebody to replace you,” she said. “All the people in the group that I usher with, we take this commitment seriously because we don’t want to leave them hanging. If they don’t have enough ushers it’s problematic for them. So I went to the damn play.”