Border officials accused a 9-year-old U.S. citizen of lying about her identity and detained her for more than 30 hours, her family tells NBC San Diego, saying that agents tried to coerce the frightened child into saying that she was not the person on her documents. If she agreed to say that, the family continues, officials told her they would let her return home.
Mom Thelma Galaxia said that family friend Michelle Cardenas was driving a carpool including daughter Julia and her 14-year-old brother Oscar “from Tijuana, where they live, to their schools in San Ysidro Monday morning, as they do nearly every day.” This is not uncommon among other families. But when it was looking like they’d be late due to bad traffic, Cardenas told the kids to cross through by foot and she’d call them a Lyft on the U.S. side.
Cardenas’ two kids crossed fine. Julia and Oscar didn’t. Galaxia said officials accused Julia of not being the girl in her documentation’s photograph, saying it was her cousin. Oscar, crying into his hands, told NBC San Diego that officers terrorized him into signing a paper. “He was told that he would be taken to jail,” Galaxia said, “and they were going to charge him for human trafficking and sex trafficking.”
“CBP said the girl ‘provided inconsistent information during her inspection,’ and officers took her into custody ‘to perform due diligence in confirming her identity and citizenship,’” NBC San Diego reported. Or maybe the child was alone and scared of the uniformed agents that were targeting her and her brother and then made him, also a minor, sign paperwork under threats.
Julia was finally reunited with her family hours later. Galaxia got the call from the Mexican consulate during an interview with NBC San Diego and rushed to get her. “I was scared,” Julia cried. “I was sad because I didn’t have my mom or my brother. I was completely by myself.” NBC San Diego “reached out to CBP, asking why officers detained a 9-year-old U.S. citizen and kept her from her mother for 36 hours. The agency said it would respond to questions when it had more details on the case.”