Now, don't get me wrong, I love living in the United States, but today I saw a very scary side to our criminal justice system that I will surely never forget. Throughout this whole ordeal, the officers tried to assure us that if everything checked out, that we would have a great story to go home with, so I guess I got this article out of the situation!
Anyone that lives on the east side of Michigan knows that it's pretty common to go across the border, and spend a night or two in Canada, just as a little adventure. From downtown Detroit, it's just a short distance through the tunnel to get to Windsor, Ontario. I headed to Windsor Saturday late afternoon, for my best friends birthday celebration she planned for about 30 of my friends from high school. We had no trouble getting into Canada that night, but the next morning we had no idea what we are in for as we made our way home. Upon reaching the border, my friends and I were waiting to approach the window for screening to enter the United States again. All of us have been to and from Canada several times before, so we are all familiar with the basic rundown of trying to get back in to the country.
After about 5-10 minutes of sitting there, we noticed that there was an alarm sounding inside the customs building, as we looked around, we saw multiple border patrol officers coming from every direction armed and slowly approaching. Immediately, I felt a pit in my stomach, and I was struck with panic. I thought something bad was happening, I thought I had done something wrong, I had a thousand thoughts running through my mind. At first, I wanted to assume that it was just a routine random search. That idea changed when the officers began screaming instructions, and holding guns as if my friends and I were some sort of threat. The officer ordered me to turn off my engine and remove my keys from the ignition, and slowly place the keys on the dashboard. Next, he asked me to step out of the car, with my back facing him, with my hands up. At this point I was shaking, and beginning to feel sick, wondering why this was happening to me. When I reached the officer, he ordered me to place my hands behind my back and put me in handcuffs. I am a 20-year-old college student, from Rochester Hills, and I’m being placed in handcuffs for the first time in my life. They then asked the front seat passenger, my close friend from high school, to also step out of the car with her hands up, with her back facing the officer. This was where she was then handcuffed, seconds before my two other friends from elementary school, who are the passengers in the back of the car, were forced to do the same. Two of us were crying, while the other two were in shock. Obviously, I did nothing but comply, but each one of us were hounding the officers for answers, because none of us had ever been in any legal trouble before, how were we supposed to know what was protocol? As we asked, they consistently ignored us or said that “What happened will be explained to you inside the customs building.”
After waiting about 10 minutes an officer proceeded to explain to us what had happened. As we approached the border, and the camera took a photo of my license plate, and mistook the last number on the plate for a different number, which was that of a reported stolen vehicle. After 30 minutes of overwhelming stress, they released us to my car; that had obviously been rigorously searched. Needless to say, I won’t be taking my car across any borders for a very long time.
As I said at the beginning, I don’t want to put this story out there saying that the U.S. border patrol is too strict, because I’m glad that they were doing their jobs. But also, a part of me feels like for four very obviously scared girls coming across, and to see us break down in tears, and still view us as a threat, combined with the fact that we were completely unaware of the reasoning behind the whole “arrest,” was the wrong way to approach the situation.
There were officers that were very understanding, and appreciated the fact that we were so compliant when we had done nothing wrong, while others held very true to their ideas about the situation. One very bitter officer told us we were wrong for being upset about the situation, because our generation doesn’t understand the idea that technology isn’t perfect. He even suggested they had to “tip toe on eggshells” for people like us, just so they don’t hurt our feelings. In my opinion, being surrounded by armed, border patrol officers, forced from my vehicle, and handcuffed, is something to be a little bit upset about when it's 11 a.m. on a Sunday.
As the day went on, it was easier to be thankful that we were okay, and that they didn’t continue with the process of detaining us. The officer explained that if they hadn’t figured out the problem as quickly as they had, we would have been on our way for mug shots, fingerprints, searches, and a nice customs holding cell. But, I guess you could say I’m still proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free (usually).
