From Canada

Ontario boater baffled by lengthy U.S. internment

Trevor Wilhelm
CanWest News Service

Monday, August 27, 2007

WINDSOR, Ont. — The man from Woodstock, Ont., who spent weeks languishing in a U.S. immigration jail after refusing to boat back to Canada because he had been drinking, was back in this country Monday, minus his identification, credit cards, $400 in cash and his clothes.

Terry DaCosta, 39, had been in a Michigan jail since Aug. 3, despite committing no criminal offence.

He appeared at the Windsor tunnel’s immigration office Monday, in a T-shirt, rolled-up blue jeans and shoes from the Monroe County Jail’s lost-and-found box. The jail had lost his effects.

During his ordeal, DaCosta said he endured cramped quarters, grumpy guards, a broken toilet and the company of dozens of others detained for long periods for similarly unclear reasons.

He said the U.S. border patrol jailed him after he was denied access to the country, and he was unable to boat back to Canada because he’d been drinking.

DaCosta and some friends, who drove their own pleasure boats, left Leamington, Ont. on Lake Erie and docked at Put-in-Bay near Sandusky, Ohio, on Aug. 3. While tying off the boats and waiting for entry approval — which he’d been granted several times previously, including two weeks prior — DaCosta had a few beers.

Then the border patrol said they were denying him entry. He still doesn’t know why.

Since DaCosta had been drinking, he and his friends had dinner to decide what to do. While they were thinking about the dilemma, border guards returned.

DaCosta opted to be detained instead of risking the loss of his licence, his boat and jail time if he were caught boating under the influence.

DaCosta said he ended up in a jail cell and was given the choice of checking one of three boxes on a form. The first was to claim he feared for his life in his own country. The second was a request to see a judge, something he was told could take a month.

So he checked the third box. In exchange for promising not to return to the U.S. for 10 years, the border patrol said they could have him back to Canada in a day or two.

The next morning he was sent to the Monroe jail, where he got some bad news

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