Jogger accidentally crosses U.S. border from B.C., gets detained for 2 weeks by authoritiesCedella Roman, visiting mom from France, says border patrol held her for crossing into Blaine, Wash.Jon Hernandez · CBC News · Posted: Jun 22, 2018 6:00 AM PT | Last Updated: 5 hours ago
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/jogger-accidentally-crosses-u-s-border-from-b-c-gets-detained-for-2-weeks-by-authorities-1.4717060
Cedella Roman says she was jogging on the evening of May 21 when she was approached by two U.S. border agents and detained for entering the country illegally. (Cedella Roman/Facebook)Cedella Roman says she was jogging along the beach in White Rock, B.C., when she crossed the U.S. border without realizing it. That began a two-week nightmare that landed her in a prison jumpsuit.
Roman, 19, was jogging south on a cool spring evening May 21. As the tide came in, she veered up and onto a dirt path before stopping to take a photo of the picturesque setting.
She turned around to head home — and that's when she was apprehended by two U.S. border patrol officers.
"An officer stopped me and started telling me I had crossed the border illegally," she told CBC News.
"I told him I had not done it on purpose, and that I didn't understand what was happening."
Roman said she didn't see any signs warning that she was crossing into the U.S. during her jog. She was informed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers that she had entered the country illegally, which they said was captured via security cameras.
"I said to myself, well I may have crossed the border — but they'll probably only give me a fine or they'll tell me to go back to Canada or they'll give me a warning."
Roman, a citizen of France who had travelled to Canada to visit her mother in B.C. and work on her English, didn't have any government-issued ID or travel permits on her.
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Roman said she was able to contact her mother, Christiane Ferne, who rushed to the detention centre to provide officers with documents including her passport and study permits.
Ferne said workers on site told her she had to present the documents to Immigration Canada to determine if Roman was eligible to be discharged back to Canada.
Roman was held in custody for two weeks before immigration officials on both sides of the border confirmed she was allowed back into Canada. Then she was transferred back into B.C.
"It was just unfair that there was nothing, no sign at the border," said Ferne, who visited her daughter several times while she was detained. "It's like a trap … anybody can be caught at the border like this."
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