Family of 4 jailed in U.S. for weeks after Canadian border guards turned them away

Lawyer says CBSA focused on small discrepancies to reject family that qualified for entry under exceptionSalvadoran family faces potential deportation from the U.S. after being denied asylum by Canada and held for two weeks in a windowless cell at the border, raising concerns about whether the U.S. is still a safe country for refugees. 2:56
Aracely saw Niagara Falls for the first time on a cold Monday in March as she crossed the Rainbow Bridge toward Canada with her common-law husband and two daughters, aged four and 14, fleeing the immigration raids and sudden deportations sweeping across the U.S.

She said they felt happiness and hope as they walked across the bridge, using their cellphones to capture a cloud of mist and spray from the falls in the distance above the Niagara River, still caked in ice. In a yellow envelope, Aracely carried documents she hoped would be the key to opening the gates to Canada for her family — birth certificates proving her relationship to her brother, who is a We could see Canada, there, ahead, and behind us, the U.S.,” said Aracely, who is originally from El Salvador. “New opportunity, a new life.”

But Canadian border guards sent the family back to the U.S., where they entered a shadowy limbo — jailed in holding cells at the U.S. port of entry in Niagara Falls, N.Y., without a breath of outside air for nearly two weeks. She spoke with CBC News in Buffalo, N.Y., where she’s currently staying while awaiting a decision from immigration authorities.

CBC News is only identifying Aracely by her first name because she remains in a precarious situation in the U.S.