Venezuelan immigrant detained in Detroit by border agents tried to take his life

Yahoo

24-04-2025

An immigrant from Venezuela tried to take his life by hanging himself while in the custody of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) last month, an official and advocates said this week.
The incident, which took place in the second week of March, illustrates what immigrant advocates say are poor conditions that detainees in the custody of federal immigration agencies in Detroit are facing as the U.S. toughens immigration enforcement. Advocates are concerned that immigrants are disappearing into a system where they lack access to counsel. In many cases, the detentions are happening after immigrants accidentally take the wrong lane onto the bridge or tunnel that leads to Canada.
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But CBP said their officers saved the man's life by acting swiftly to stop the attempted suicide and transported him to a hospital. A spokesman in Michigan for U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the man who attempted suicide was a citizen of Venezuela and was later turned over on March 15 to a detention facility that contracts with the Enforcement Removal Operations (ERO) branch of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). It's unclear where he is currently and his name was not provided.
The man was allegedly a member of the gang Tren de Aragua, a group in Venezuela labeled by the U.S. as a criminal organization, CBP officials told U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, according to the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center. Tlaib had visited a CBP facility on March 21, meeting with CBP leaders who sought to reassure her that their detainees are treated humanely.
The suicide attempt had taken place at a detention facility near the Detroit-Windsor tunnel the week before Tlaib's visit, said Christine Sauvé, manager of policy and communication at the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center.
"At the time of (Tlaib's) visit, there had just been a suicide attempt the previous week," Sauvé said. "There's also a detention site at the tunnel, and so what CBP told Rep. Tlaib was that a Venezuelan man, they claimed from Tren de Agua, was in a holding cell and officers observed him trying to hang himself, and they intervened."
Sauvé said the Venezuelan man "was at that tunnel port of entry detention site for three days. We don't know what happened to that person. We actually are quite concerned about the conditions of the tunnel."
In a statement to the Free Press Wednesday evening, a spokesman for CBP in Michigan explained what the agency said happened.
"CBP officers are trained to observe, respond to, and take action to thwart any attempt at self-harm, and at no time was a detainee in our custody able to follow through with an attempt on their life," he said. "In fact, due to the quick actions by CBP officers, the detainee in question was transported to a local hospital, where he was observed, evaluated, and cleared by medical professionals to return to custody at the port of entry, prior to being transferred into ICE custody."
He was then transferred on March 15 to an ICE detention center, the spokesman said.
The Venezuelan citizen was one of 213 immigrants who were detained in Detroit by U.S. Customs and Border Protection over a two-month period after President Donald Trump took office in January, according to data the agency provided to Tlaib. Tlaib provided the data to the center, who shared it with the Free Press this week. Tlaib did not return a phone call and message Wednesday.
About 90% of the 213 immigrants detained from January 20 to March 21 were people who accidentally took the wrong lane in southwest Detroit onto the Ambassador Bridge, which connects the U.S. to Canada, Sauvé said. Some also had mistakenly tried to cross through the Detroit-Windsor tunnel in downtown Detroit. About 100 of the 213 cases were first-time encounters with CBP, said officials with the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center.
CBP told Tlaib that 40 of the people detained were gang members with Tren de Aragua, which the Trump administration has said is a growing threat and is part of the reason they're toughening immigration enforcement.
CBP disputed some of the data provided by Tlaib to the center, saying it's not completely accurate.
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"While CBP did encounter just over 200 aliens from Jan. 20 to March 21, only approximately half of those were detained and turned over to ICE/ERO (Enforcement Removal Operations branch of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) after CBP secondary processing was complete," the CBP spokesman said. "When Rep. Tlaib visited the Port of Detroit in March, there were no individuals being detained at our facilities."
The data reveals for the first time the frequency of immigrants being detained in Detroit after taking a wrong turn onto the bridge and tunnel.
The immigrants were detained in a CBP facility in a building in southwest Detroit that is near the entrance to the Ambassador Bridge. CPB told the Free Press the facility is at the Port of Detroit. A managing attorney with the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, Ruby Robinson, raised questions about conditions in the facility, saying detainees in some cases are being held for prolonged periods, not getting access to counsel, and lacking proper food and sanitary supplies like diapers for children. Tlaib visited the facility on March 21, meeting with CBP officials.
Marty Raybon, director of field operations at the Detroit Field Office of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, defended the facility in a post on X after Tlaib's visit, saying immigrant detainees are "treated with dignity and respect."
"We hosted @RepRashida today to highlight our safe/secure facilities in #Detroit and discuss the realities of our ongoing immigration enforcement mission," Raybon said. "Make no mistake — those held in our custody are treated with dignity and respect, regardless of immigration status."
Tlaib was "shown a supply rooms that had diapers, clothes, toys, and the food that's available, like ramen and microwave pasta," Sauvé said.
But in one recent case, an immigrant mother named Sarahi and her children were not given diapers and a child who developed a fever and cough was not given medication, said Robinson, her attorney.
What CBP told Tlaib last month "conflicts with ... what our client shared with us previously," Sauvé said. "In that case, they did not have access to diapers or clothing" and medicine.
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A CBP spokesman said the facility that's being criticized "was established by CBP at the Port of Detroit in the event aliens including family units with no legal status in the U.S. needed to be temporarily housed, while they awaited transfer to ICE custody. This facility has seldom been utilized as there has not been an influx of family units encountered at our ports of entry."
Immigrants being detained while accidentally entering the bridge are not new and took place in previous administrations, Robinson said. But what's different now is that CBP is holding them in their own facility for long periods of time even though the agency is not equipped traditionally to house inmates. In the past, the detainees would be released and put on a tether or asked to appear for a court hearing at a later time, Robinson said. Now, they are detained and then deported with little transparency, advocates said.
"People make a wrong turn and then they end up disappearing into CBP custody," Sauvé said. "There's the lack of transparency and oversight, and the other big problem here is just the overall curtailing of due process, the fairness that we hold so dear, guaranteed under our constitution to make sure that people have access to counsel and the opportunity to have their case heard in court."
Tlaib and the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center are expected to speak out about these challenges at a news conference April 24.
"These numbers seem high and unsettling," Robinson said of the 213 immigrants detained over two months in one center. He doesn't have the data for previous years and has been trying through FOIA requests with CBP to get more information.
Robinson also questioned how CBP decided that 40 of the immigrants detained were members of Tren de Aragua
In the case of Sarahi, the immigrant mother from Guatemala who lives in Detroit with two girls who are both U.S. citizens, ages 1 and 5, the family was detained after accidentally entering the lane to the Ambassador Bridge while on their way to Costco for some weekend shopping, Robinson said. GPS directions routed them toward a Costco in Windsor, Canada, instead of in Michigan.
For five days, the woman and her family were stuck in a detention center, confused and scared about what was happening to them and where they were, and unable to get access to a lawyer. The woman's brother, who was traveling with them to Costco, also was detained.
CBP Assistant Commissioner Hilton Beckham defended the agency in a statement last month to the Free Press, released by a spokesman for CBP in Michigan.
"When individuals violate immigration laws, their choices make them subject to detention and removal," Beckham said. "In this case, an illegal alien was encountered at the Detroit Ambassador Bridge after driving into Canada without travel documents."
Regarding the issue of wrong turns onto the bridge and tunnel, CBP said that they are following a "routine procedure" when they check on the legal status of people who want to cross back into the U.S. There are many signs on the highways in metro Detroit alerting drivers they will enter Canada if they're in a particular lane, CBP said.
"CBP is aware of instances where individuals, including illegal aliens, have made unintended entries into Canada from Michigan ports of entry, or attempted to re-enter the United States without proper documentation," the CBP spokesman said Wednesday. "All individuals seeking to enter the United States at a port of entry are subject to inspection by CBP officers for compliance with immigration, customs, and agriculture regulations as a matter of routine procedure."
The spokesman described the procedures that border officers do in deciding whether to detain or allow drivers back into the U.S.
"CBP officers determine a traveler's admissibility based on the inspection process, which includes a review of the travel documents presented," he said. "If an alien cannot provide valid documentation or establish a lawful basis to enter or remain in the United States, they may be deemed inadmissible under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) and subject to removal proceedings following due process."
Most people who cross borders don't encounter any problems, the CBP said. The U.S. is no longer releasing unauthorized immigrants when they encounter them and instead move to transfer them to ICE for deportation, officials added.
Contact Niraj Warikoo: [e-mail] or X @nwarikoo
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Venezuelan immigrant detained in Detroit tried to take life