Woman searching for Costco detained after accidentally ending up at U.S.-Canada border
What should have been an ordinary afternoon of shopping at Costco turned into a nightmare ordeal at the U.S.-Canada border for one woman and her family.
NPR reported that a woman living in the Detroit area of Michigan had been on her way to Costco when a wrong turn led her to the U.S.-Canada border.
On March 8, Sarahi, who chooses to go by her first name, said she was travelling with her two young daughters, ages one and five, and brother, 19, to shop and get lunch at a local Costco.
Costco at Windsor, Ont. (The Bold Bureau/Shutterstock)
However, they didn’t know at the time that the GPS was directing them to a Costco in Canada — one located across the border in Windsor, Ont. Sarahi and her brother are immigrants from Guatemala and don’t have legal status in the U.S. However, Sarahi’s daughters are both U.S. citizens. She said she realized what was happening when U.S. immigration officials approached their car.
Both brother and sister were separated and told that they were to be deported. They also had the right to speak to a lawyer. Sarahi alleged that she was given the option to send her children home, but at the time, she refused to let them go. Sarahi recalled having to sign a document admitting that she had entered the country illegally and that she wanted to keep her daughters with her.
Sarahi said they slept in cots, and mealtimes consisted of instant noodle soup, macaroni, or oatmeal. She also alleged that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) tried to persuade her to take her daughters with her to Guatemala, but she refused. She also claimed that her youngest daughter started to get sick and had a fever, but agents told her they had no medicine.
Daniel J. Macy/Shutterstock
By Wednesday evening, the girls were released to Sarahi’s sister-in-law. The next day, Sarahi was released and was told that her brother would be deported.
In a statement, her lawyer, Ruby Robinson of the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, called the Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) detention centre “a virtual black box” where people have no idea how long they’ll be in custody.
“Individuals are not being allowed to call anyone, including an attorney,” he stated in a release. “Every person has the right to access legal counsel in every detention setting in the United States, and that must apply to people in CBP custody. No matter who you are or where you’re from, you deserve to be treated fairly and with dignity.”
Sarahi and her brother making a wrong turn on their way to Costco and ending up at the U.S.-Canada border isn’t as uncommon as one might think.
In an email to Daily Hive, a representative for the non-profit ACLU Michigan stated that it is common for Detroit residents to make a wrong turn, inadvertently landing themselves on the bridge to Canada.
In a release, ACLU stated, “They were held for five days in a windowless room without access to medical care, adequate food, and other essentials. She was not given the opportunity to call a lawyer or her consulate.”
U.S. Representative Rashida Tlaib (Phil Pasquini/Shutterstock)
U.S. Representative Rashida Tlaib visited the site where CBP was holding people at the Ambassador Bridge. Her visit revealed that from January to March 2025, CBP detained over 210 people, including families, and that 90 per cent of them ended up at the bridge by accident. One individual at the detention site in the tunnel had attempted suicide.
“A wrong turn at the border should not lead to disappearance,” said Tlaib. “It is outrageously cruel and inhumane to hold families at our northern border. We can’t lose our soul as a country and stand by and let this happen to our neighbours.”
Daily Hive has reached out to Sarahi’s lawyer and CBP for comment and will update this story accordingly.