Six members of a New Brunswick family were detained in Maine for four hours after a Sunday afternoon drive took an unexpected turn into the U.S.
Derek and Wendi McDaniel, daughters Sarah, 4, and Megan, 8, and family dog Sophie recently moved into what's known in the area as the old Pedersen farm near New Denmark, N.B.
The couple's curiosity was piqued when they learned the Pedersen family built another farm down the road by the border.
And the drive was going fine until Derek McDaniel made an ill-fated turn.
"When I came down, I saw the marker that says 'Canada,' and saw the sign that's in the farmer's field," McDaniel said. "When I looked at that I assumed I couldn't go past where the sign was and go into the farmer's field, which I wouldn't.
"I took the left to proceed down to the house that I was going to go look at and that was in Canada."
The problem, McDaniel quickly discovered, is that the house he was trying to see is in Canada, but the road he picked to get to it isn't. This point was clearly made when a U.S. border patrol car pulled them over as soon as they wandered out of Canada.
"They told me that all of us in the vehicle were going to be arrested, and our vehicle was going to be seized at that point in time," McDaniel said.
Megan McDaniel said she was frightened by the run-in with the border police.
"I was crying when we found out we were all arrested," she said. "I didn't like it."
Dennis Harmon, a U.S. border officer, said the McDaniels family was treated the same way as anyone who crosses illegally into the country. (CBC)Dennis Harmon, the border patrol agent in charge, defended the arrest by saying the family would have passed by two signs in French and English advising them not to enter.
"[The border officers] determined that none of the subjects had permission to be or remain in the United States legally, and they had effected an illegal entry, at which time they were transported into the Fort Fairfield border patrol station, where they were processed and given a voluntary return into Canada," Harmon said.
Harmon said the McDaniels were treated like anyone else who enters the United States illegally.
"Anybody that makes an illegal entry through this area will receive the same processing, will be arrested and whatever else," Harmon said. "They could possibly receive a voluntary return up to imprisonment for violation of a criminal statute."
Parents fingerprinted
Megan McDaniel (left) and her sister Sarah were detained with the rest of their family in Fort Fairfield, Maine, when their family took a wrong turn. (CBC)Everyone in the vehicle was taken to the border patrol's new facility at Fort Fairfield, Me. Over the next four hours, border police fingerprinted the parents and checked for any criminal history. A special sniffing dog inspected the family's truck.
"For a family that was on a Sunday drive, and went up the wrong road … they didn't want to hear that we were sorry, that we made a mistake," Wendi said.
"It was just, 'No, this is what's happening now, and you're coming with us.' There was just no common sense. They just weren't human."
While they were being questioned about their illegal entry into the U.S., the parents had to explain to the girls what was going on, Wendi said.
"The kids were sitting there watching it," she said. "The kids had never been fingerprinted before. And [Sarah] said 'Why are they doing that?' And I said, 'Well Sarah, we went down a road that we weren't suppose to go down, and that's why they're doing it.' And she said, 'So we're not going to go down that road again, right?' And I said, 'Nope.'"
New office opened in 2009
The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol station in Fort Fairfield opened in 2008. Harmon said increased enforcement in the area has brought down the number of illegal entries.
The confusing road has long been a problem for local people. In March 2008, even the late Nikolaj Pedersen ran into problems when he tried to get to his farm.
Border Services says it can't simply block the road. It is a legal point of entry into Canada in the summer, primarily to accommodate Aroostook Valley Country Club golfers, who play the game in Canada but must park in the United States.
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