A mother trying to take her children to Costco should not be facing deportation.

But that’s exactly what happened to a woman in Detroit — a longtime member of her community and mother of two U.S.-born daughters — after a wrong turn onto the Ambassador Bridge toward Canada.

She was following directions from a phone app. She never crossed the border. She never intended to leave the country. But because she drove into a toll plaza near the bridge, Border Patrol detained her, her children, and her younger brother for days in a small, windowless room. Her daughters, just 5 and 1 years old, developed a fever and a cough while in custody. They were fed ramen and oatmeal and denied proper medical care.

Now, she faces deportation.

She’s lived in the U.S. for six years. Her children are citizens. She is not a threat. She is not a criminal. Her only “crime” was trusting GPS directions to the nearest store and living in a neighborhood near an international crossing.

Worse, she signed documents under pressure, in custody, after being told she had no choice but to take her babies with her to Guatemala, a country they’ve never known. She did not have an attorney present.

This is not due process. This is not justice. This is cruelty.

This story is not unique. Since January, over 200 people have been detained in the same Detroit location. Most did what she did — made a wrong turn. Families are being torn apart at our northern border in silence, without warning, and without fairness.

We call on ICE and immigration authorities to drop this woman’s removal proceedings and allow her to remain in Detroit with her daughters, her community, and the life she’s built here.

No one should be ripped away from their children because of a navigation error.

No one should lose everything because of a system that sees people as problems instead of as human beings.

Let her stay.

(AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)