French-teen accidentally crosses US-Canada border while jogging, detained for 2-weeks
A casual jog on the beach quickly and unexpectedly turned into "the fright of (her) life" for a French teenager vacationing in Canada. Nineteen-year-old Cedella Roman was visiting her mother in White Rock after finishing school. On May 21, she went jogging. But she unintentionally crossed the US border and ran into Patrol agents. The next two weeks were spent in detention with illegal immigrants.
She was caught while jogging, had no documents on her
On the fateful day, Roman, a native of the Alps, was headed back home when the tide turned, and US Border Patrol agents apprehended her. She insisted she wasn't entering the country, but had no documents to prove identity. She was then taken away. "That's when I began to get very afraid," she told AFP. But thankfully, she was allowed to call her mother.
She was kept with illegal immigrants for two weeks
The same night, she was shifted to the Tacoma Northwest Detention Center. "We were locked up all the time and in the yard there was barbed wire and dogs," she said. For two weeks, she spent a large room with some 100 detainees, most of them illegal immigrants. "We tried to help each other, there was a good atmosphere," Roman recalled.
Due to nationality, documents took a long time to process
Roman's mother Christiane Ferne was at the center within two days with all her documents, but the following process took much time as they were to be checked by Canadian authorities, and Roman wasn't Canadian. She was eventually released after completion of all formalities. All charges against her have now been dropped, but she can't travel to the US again.
US Patrol urges travelers near the border to stay alert
Fernes said Roman's crossing into the US happened unintentionally, but a major factor was the lack of clear border signs. "It's like a trap...anybody can be caught at the border like this," she said. However, US Border Protection puts the onus on individuals. They have urged travelers in the vicinity to "maintain awareness of their surroundings and their location at all times."
