Family thrown in jail after crossing border into US
‘We have been treated like criminals here’
The Foreign Office is supporting a Maidstone couple and their baby who claim they were thrown in an American prison for accidentally crossing the border from Canada.
David and Eileen Connors, along with their three-monthold son, were on holiday near Vancouver when it was reported the family went off-road while driving to avoid an animal and entered the US without knowing.
A group of seven, which is also said to have included Mr Connors’ brother, Michael, his wife Grace and their two-year-old twin daughters, were arrested by the US Border Patrol earlier this month.
They have since been in custody at Berks County Residential Center in Pennsylvania, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
A statement from the family’s lawyer, published in the international media, claims David and Michael were separated from their wives and children, and that on the first night of their detention, Eileen was held with her baby in a women’s cell with only a foil blanket to keep warm. Mrs Connors is said to have likened the experience to “an abduction or kidnapping”. She said she was given blankets that smelled like “dead dog” and claimed her son has developed skin and eye conditions.
She added: “We have been treated like criminals here, stripped of our rights, and lied to.
“We have been traumatised... this would never happen in the United Kingdom to US citizens, or anyone else, because people there are treated with dignity.” The family’s lawyer told reporters they had no idea they had crossed any boundary, as US officials allege the couple’s car was captured on camera turning into a ditch on the Canadian side of the border before scaling the other side to enter the country.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement teams have also denied the claims of inhumane conditions at the prison. A Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesman said: “We’re providing assistance to a British family taken into custody in the US and are in close contact with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”
‘We have been stripped of our rights and lied to’