‘If they can’t resolve this, they will turn them over to ICE;’ Utah foster family’s trip turns into border mishap

WEST JORDAN — A holiday trip to visit family turned into an ordeal for a Utah father and his two foster sons when they were detained for hours at the U.S.-Canada border.

Melody Oertle said her husband, Virgil, was driving the boys, who are from Haiti and not U.S. citizens, to Buffalo, New York, to see their mother and younger siblings.

 

“They’ve always talked about going to visit their mom who lives in New York, and their two little brothers, one of them, they knew when he was a baby, the other one was born since they have been separated from their family,” Oertle said.

The Oertles requested KSL conceal the boys’ identities because of rules within the foster care system.

She said the timing of their trip to see family was intentional.

“We learned that the United States has said that Haitian immigrants will no longer have protected status as of February 3,” Oertle said.

A wrong turn sent them across the Peace Bridge into Ontario.

“My husband just googled ‘Walmart near me’ and the one that came up, he got, they have a rental car, and they got in the car and drove, and at one point, he realized he was heading to Canada, and there was nowhere to turn around,” Oertle said. “He even stopped at a duty-free place, and they said, ‘Oh, don’t worry about it. They’ll give you a chance to turn around up there.'”

Oertle said Canadian agents cleared the boys to leave, but U.S. border officials refused to let them back in without specific visa paperwork.

“If they had gone across the border knowing they shouldn’t have and trying to risk it, okay,” Oertle said. “That’s a consequence. It was such an innocent mistake.”

Oertle said the 17 and 20-year-old had social security cards, state IDs, work permits and letters from the Department of Homeland Security — but it wasn’t enough.

“An attorney from Catholic Charities has emailed them, and I don’t know what else,” Oertle said. “We have as much document as a human can provide. We have a foster care custody order from a judge in Utah, and the border agents are still holding them because they want proof of a certain visa application.”

Oertle said the document border agents requested was the I-485 form,  Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status.

Oertle said agents warned the boys could be turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement if the issue couldn’t be resolved. Calls to their attorneys went unanswered because of the holiday.

“They’re not criminals,” she said. “If you look them up, there’s no criminal history. They’ve never done anything to be on anybody’s radar. They meet with an immigration judge every six months. They have attorneys.”

Oertle said her husband prepared the boys for the worst.

“Do not speak to the ICE agents, if they ask you a question, do not answer it,” Oertle’s husband told the boys. “Do not sign any papers. They both have attorneys. They can talk to the attorneys.”

After more than seven hours in custody, and a couple of hours after Oertle’s interview with KSL, she said the boys were released late Sunday. Oertle said she shared the story to prevent others from making the same mistake.

“I speak English, I’ve got a social security number, I’ve got my passport, but most of the people in a situation like this don’t,” Oertle said. “I guess I just want to be a voice for someone who doesn’t have one.”

The family plans to fly back to Utah on Monday.