'Like a jail cell': Family of six detained at Washington state border facility for more than three weeks

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https://www.opb.org/article/2025/05/28/like-a-jail-cell-family-of-six-detained-at-washington-state-border-facility-for-more-than-three-weeks/

‘Like a jail cell’: Family of six detained at Washington state border facility for more than three weeks

By Troy Brynelson (OPB)
May 28, 2025 1:07 p.m.

A family from southwestern Africa that was living in Washington state while seeking asylum said they were detained by immigration officials for nearly a month in a windowless cell.

The family had feared deportation and tried to cross from Blaine, Washington, into Canada. They then spent 24 days from April 26 to May 20 — in a single holding room.

The six-person family had one toilet in the room to share. The mother, who is diabetic, is still breastfeeding her youngest child: an 11-month-old who was born in Washington state …

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Immigrants rights experts worried that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, or CBP, did not sufficiently help the family contact their attorney or anyone outside the Blaine facility.

Angelina Godoy, of the University of Washington’s Center for Human Rights, said she heard about the family’s detention in mid-May and could not reach the family despite what she described as “over a dozen calls” to CBP. She called it shocking that a family of six had been in border protection custody for weeks and so few people knew.

“They had no ability to contest that they were being detained,” Godoy said. “They were just held — essentially kidnapped — and released by the government when they decided to do so.”

In a statement, a CBP spokesperson said that the agency generally tries to process people within three days.

“CBP treats aliens within its custody humanely and strictly adheres to CBP’s national standards,” the spokesperson said in an email.

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But the family’s claims suggest immigration officials broke current detention guidelines. Agency rules say people detained by CBP should be in custody for a maximum of 72 hours.

ACLU Washington declined to specify how the family managed to contact people outside the federal facility, citing only “community members” blowing the whistle on their care.

“There were members of the community who learned about the family’s detention at the Blaine facility and, realizing the direness of the situation, reached out to us in hopes that we would be able to help the family be released,” said La Rond Baker, legal director of ACLU Washington

Word spread to state and federal lawmakers, who told OPB that they began inquiring about the family shortly before CBP released them. The family is now back at their Seattle apartment, and they are facing an uncertain future.

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