A 9-year-old American citizen on her way to school was apprehended by U.S. immigration officials and detained for 32 hours before she was released back to her family. The girl, who was carrying a U.S. passport card with her, told reporters, “I was scared. I didn’t have my mom or my brother. I was completely by myself.”
Julia Medina, her 14-year-old brother and two friends were being driven to school in San Ysidro by her friends’ mom from their home in Tijuana. Thousands of people travel through the Tijuana-San Ysidro crossing daily for school or work.
When traffic slowed to a crawl, the mom told the children to walk across the border so they wouldn’t be late. An official detained Medina, saying she didn’t look like the photo on her passport card.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement that the girl, whom they confirmed is an American citizen, “provided inconsistent information during her inspection.” She was taken into custody so officers could “perform due diligence in confirming her identity and citizenship,” according to the statement.
Medina was taken into custody on Monday and only released on Tuesday evening. Officials had no explanation for why the process took 32 hours or why the 9-year-old was in custody the entire time.
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