By Michael Donoghue
Vermont News First
The illegal possession of fraudulent documents, including a bogus social security card, is the reason a Winooski mother and her 7-year-old son were detained at the International border over the Thanksgiving holiday, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Friday.
Winooski school officials had put out a notice this week expressing concern that the student from the John F. Kennedy School had not returned from the holiday break and indicated they thought the child was being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They said it was a matter of a wrong turn.
In reality it turns out the mother, and her son were taken into custody at the border at Highgate Springs on Thanksgiving Day, according to Customs and Border Protection.
The mother, child — and an adult man, who was traveling with them — were denied entry into Canada for unknown reasons on Thursday Nov. 27 and they were ordered to turn around, officials said.
When the trio got back to the United States side, a search of their vehicle by CBP officers discovered fraudulent documents, a spokesman said.
They included a fraudulent Lawful Permanent Resident card – also known as a Green Card — and the false Social Security card belonging to the mother, CBP said.
The mother and her son were subsequently transferred to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Enforcement and Removal Operations detained them pending her immigration proceedings.
They are housed at a Family Immigration Detention Facility in Texas while the case is resolved, officials said.
“Her son remained with her throughout the process, and at no point were they separated,” the CBP told Vermont News First.
The adult man traveling with them also was turned over to ICE ERO for further investigation and processing, CBP said.
Compass Vermont reported the family is from Ecuador and came to the United States 3 years ago. They have lived in Winooski for two months.
The detention case generated some national interest because a few media reports made it sound like the 7-year-old had been snagged by himself by ICE.
Newsweek magazine alsos reported Winooski School Superintendent Wilmer Chavarria said the family “made a wrong turn” while traveling out of state to visit relatives, leading to the encounter with immigration authorities. He thought they were in the Midwest visiting relatives.
That did not jive with the CBP report that they were caught at the Highgate Springs Port of Entry, about 38 miles due north of Winooski on Interstate 89.