British family's illegal border crossing into Washington state was no accident, feds say

U.S. Customs and Border Protection released surveillance video today that the border patrol said shows a British family of seven illegally crossing Oct. 3 from Canada into the U.S. at Lynden, Washington.

The incident has gotten international attention because the Connors family said they were just tourists who swerved onto another road to avoid an animal in the road – and unwittingly crossed the border.

The family said their mistake landed them — Eileen and David Connors and their three-month-old baby, as well as David's cousin Michael Connors, his wife, Grace, and their twin two-year-olds — in what they called "filthy and freezing" detention facilities.

They were first held in Washington state, then in Pennsylvania, where they were flown. The family has since been deported to the UK.

Border patrol officials, however, said the family intentionally entered the country illegally, and point to the video as evidence. It shows a car driving slowly through the ditch that separates British Columbia from Washington state.

A border patrol spokesperson, who spoke on condition of not being named, acknowledged that the video shows a small animal crossing the street some distance ahead of the Connors' vehicle. But he said it would be odd to drive through a ditch to avoid an animal moving so slowly and so far away.

This is not the first trouble the family has had with Customs and Border Patrol: the border patrol spokesperson said two members of the family were denied entry into the U.S. last year, and deemed "inadmissable," due to possible ties to criminal activity.

The spokesperson said when they were taken into custody, the Connors family was carrying $16,000 in Canadian dollars.