Jogger detained for 2 weeks in U.S. after crossing border by mistake

The coast of White Rock, B.C., looks to be an ideal place for a run.

That’s what 19-year-old Cedella Roman thought when she went jogging along the area’s smooth beaches — in a southbound direction, notably — on May 21.

Roman, who lives in France, had been visiting her mother in nearby North Delta, B.C.

During her run, she was admiring the scenery when she unwittingly crossed the border from Canada into the United States, Roman told the CBC.

The demarcation line between the two countries, it turns out, is only about five kilometres down the coast from White Rock’s popular wooden pier.

Roman told CBC News she hadn’t seen any signs indicating she was about to cross into the United States, but that two U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers approached her shortly after she accidentally left Canada.

“An officer stopped me and started telling me I had crossed the border illegally,” Roman told the news site.

“I told him I had not done it on purpose, and that I didn’t understand what was happening.”

Roman — who was not carrying any identification or proof of citizenship with her during her jog — told CBC News she thought the Border Patrol officers might simply let her go with a warning.

That was not to be the case, according to U.S. immigration officials, who confirmed the subsequent events in an email to The Washington Post.

Instead, the Border Patrol arrested Roman on May 21, “processed her as an expedited removal,” then transferred her to the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to ICE spokesperson Carissa Cutrell.

On May 22, Roman was taken to an ICE detention centre in Tacoma, Wash., about 225 kilometres south of the border point where she had been arrested.

She remained detained until June 5 when, after paperwork and processing, Roman was taken back to the border “and removed to Canada,” Cutrell said.

Roman told CBC News she was frightened after Border Patrol agents put her in “the caged vehicles” to transport her to a detention centre.

“They asked me to remove all my personal belongings with my jewelry. They searched me everywhere,” Roman told the news site. “Then I understood it was getting very serious, and I started to cry a bit.”