DETROIT — More than 90% of foreign nationals stopped by U.S. agents at the Detroit-Windsor crossing during the first three months of the year are arriving at the Ambassador Bridge by accident after taking a wrong turn onto the bridge to Canada, and some are being detained "incommunicado" for as long as 12 days before being handed over to authorities and "disappearing," immigrant advocates said Thursday.

Detroit U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat who toured U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Detroit border facilities in late March, said she received the wrong-turn data directly from the agency. During her visit, Tlaib was also told that at least a dozen families with children had been detained during the same three-month period in an office-like setting that's not intended for long-term detention.

"A wrong turn should not lead to a disappearance. ... For years, we've been saying it is too easy for people to accidentally end up in the toll plaza. We've had to lobby for more signage and warnings," said Tlaib said, the Ambassador Bridge's proximity to the multiethnic enclave of southwest Detroit.

"But I do want to make it clear people are still making this innocent mistake that now has the possibility to destroy their lives."

The wrong-turn revelation followed the news first reported by the New York Times this week that a 32-year-old Venezuelan national and delivery driver was deported last month after having erroneously turned onto an Ambassador Bridge entrance in Detroit to Canada. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday the man, Ricardo Prada Vásquez, tried to cross the border from Canada at the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, not the bridge.

U.S. officials said this week Prada Vásquez was flagged by the government "as a designated a public safety threat as a confirmed member of" the Tren de Aragua gang, and who was "in violation of his conditions of admission."

CBP acknowledged on Thursday that wrong turns at Detroit's border crossings do happen occasionally and said officers assess the circumstances at the time the individual or individuals present themselves for inspection at the border. The agency noted that freeway signs alert all motorists well in advance of an upcoming port of entry, including overhead signs and markings on the roadway itself.

"CBP is aware of instances where individuals, including illegal aliens, have made unintended entries into Canada from Michigan ports of entry, or attempted to re-enter the United States without proper documentation," a CBP spokesman said in a statement.

"All individuals seeking to enter the United States at a port of entry are subject to inspection by CBP officers for compliance with immigration, customs, and agriculture regulations as a matter of routine procedure."

CBP is holding more foreign nationals at the northern border in part because the agency is no longer "catching and releasing" those without legal status into the country, and is instead taking steps to detain and turn them over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for processing and deportation.

Advocates: No calls allowed

But immigration advocates on Thursday claimed that CBP is not allowing attorneys to access individuals detained at the Ambassador Bridge or Detroit-Windsor Tunnel ― including the individual held for 12 days ― or allowing them to call family members or their consulates so they can inform them of their situation.

Prada's whereabouts were unknown until after the Times wrote about his story this week, and the Department of Homeland Security said he'd been sent to El Salvador on March 15.

"It shouldn't take a congressional visit to find out what's happening to our immigrant neighbors. No one should just 'disappear' ― much less because they took a wrong turn on the highway," said Miriam Aukerman, a senior staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan.

"In a democracy, there must be access to people in detention. Access is really important so that people don't disappear, so they aren't deported in the middle of the night without ever seeing a judge. Democracies don't deny people access to attorneys. Democracies don't allow government agents to lock people up in secret, when no one knows where they are."

The immigration status of those detained is unclear. However, an attorney with the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center estimated that some individuals may be undocumented. In contrast, others likely have temporary immigration status, such as authorization to work or are already subject to removal proceedings.

"We need CBP to come clean about what's happening at the northern border. How many people are being held for? How long? How many children?" Auckerman said. "We need to end the use of CBP sites for long-term detention. The facilities are not designed for that."

Aukerman said her organization has been asking CBP since the middle of February for the numbers of how many individuals ― adults, children and U.S. citizen children ― have been held at the Detroit CBP facilities, but "it's a complete black hole of information."

"It's very clear from my visit (to CBP) ― over and over again they repeated it: 'We were not built to detain people,'" Tlaib said.

Feds: Goal is short detentions

Tlaib said CBP officials told her they'd detained 213 foreign nationals at the Port of Detroit between January and her visit to the facilities on March 21, though a Michigan spokesman for CBP disputed that figure.

The CBP had 213 encounters with alien immigrants over the period but had detained only about half of those, who were turned over to ICE after the processing was complete, the spokesman said.

One of them was a Detroit client of the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center identified only as Sarahi, who accidentally put the Costco in Windsor into her GPS navigation app instead of the local store and ended up going over the Ambassador Bridge, MIRC attorney Ruby Robinson said. Sarahi was detained March 8 by CBP on her way back into Detroit, along with her two U.S.-citizen children, then ages 1 and 5, for five days in the short-term detention space that Tlaib had described.

They were held in a windowless room, sleeping on cots and fed microwavable meals like ramen noodles and oatmeal, but not permitted to contact Sarahi's consulate or counsel, Robinson said.

Her children, after a few days, started to become sick, experiencing a cough and a fever, and were not given the requested medication, Robinson said. The mother eventually arranged for a family friend to pick up the kids on March 12 with CBP's help, and Sarahi was released to ICE supervision the following day.

"Our client's story fits a pattern of concerns we are hearing about anecdotally in regard to CBP: Short-term detention spaces being used for prolonged detention," Robinson said.

"We worry about what is happening in these non-public spaces, given the almost nonexistent transparency, accountability and access. We think there are more individuals like Sarahi affected, and their stories are untold."

The agency said the facility in question, where the family was held, was established by CBP at the Port of Detroit in the event immigrants, including family units with no legal status in the U.S., needed to be temporarily housed while awaiting transfer to ICE custody.

"This facility has seldom been utilized as there has not been an influx of family units encountered at our ports of entry," the Michigan CBP spokesman said. "CBP ensures all individuals in custody are treated with respect and in accordance with the law."

CBP said a top priority is to minimize the duration of any detention, with the length of time in custody being affected by operational requirements, case complexity and other factors.

"However, individuals’ choices and legal violations contribute significantly to the necessity of detention," the spokesman said. "CBP facilities are intended for short-term detention, and individuals are either transferred to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or released when legally appropriate."

In the case of the family held for five days in March, CBP said that when the mother was stopped at the Ambassador Bridge, she admitted to unlawfully entering the U.S. in 2018.

"When individuals violate immigration laws, their choices make them subject to detention and removal," CBP Assistant Commissioner Hilton Beckham said in a statement.

"Per policy, CBP worked to find a suitable guardian for her U.S. citizen children; however, she initially chose to keep them with her, prolonging the detention period. Once the children were placed with a guardian, she was transferred to ICE."

CBP officials also pointed to the ICE Online Detainee Locator System that the public may use to locate detainees who have been in CBP custody for more than 48 hours. Robinson said, however, the database isn't promptly updated and only reflects individuals in ICE custody, despite CBP's insistence that it also shows CBP detainees.

"I have never been successful finding someone in CBP custody using the ICE Detainee Locator. So counsel and families are wondering where their family members are, where their clients are," Robinson said.

"When I call (CBP) on the phone, they say, 'We can't share information over the phone; talk to ICE.' I talk to ICE, and they say they're not in our custody, right? And so I just get a ping-pong back and forth."

Tlaib also learned of a suicide attempt that was made by a detainee at a small detention site near the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel in March. CBP was able to stop the suicide after noticing via a camera feed "some suspicious activity" with a blanket that the individual had been given.

CBP confirmed that no detainee in its custody was able to follow through with a suicide attempt.

"In fact, due to the quick actions by CBP officers, the detainee in question was transported to a local hospital, where he was observed, evaluated, and cleared by medical professionals to return to custody at the port of entry, prior to being transferred into ICE custody" on March 15, the agency said in a Thursday statement.

The detainee, a citizen of Venezuela, was turned over to an ICE-contracted detention facility on March 15, according to CBP.

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(Staff Writers Charles Ramirez and George Hunter contributed to this story.)

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