American Children Among Group Deported Following Hi-Line Immigration Arrest

U.S. immigration authorities deported eight children, some of whom were United States citizens, following the arrest of 21 people in late April near the Montana-Canada border.

Authorities deported the children along with their mothers to Canada while keeping the women’s husbands and others in the United States to face criminal immigration charges. 

The children ranged in age from less than a year to 10. At least three were U.S. citizens, although the exact number wasn’t clear in court documents or testimony. Most of the people involved are Romanian citizens, according to case documents.

During a hearing Monday in U.S. District Court in Great Falls, U.S. Border Patrol agent Adam Kovatch said that the group produced birth certificates for the American children while detained at a border patrol station.

“We were initially told that some were born in Germany, but later it came to light that several were born in the United States,” Kovatch testified.

Ultimately, U.S. authorities deported all of the children, their mothers and extended family members. One of the deported women was eight and a half months pregnant and was taken to a hospital during U.S. detention due to labor pains, according to Kovatch. She was later discharged and deported along with the others, and it’s not clear whether she has given birth while her husband remains in U.S. custody.

The details emerged during testimony Monday in the case of Ionut Gheorghe, a 27-year-old Romanian man. He faces a potential indictment for transporting illegal aliens into the country as one of the alleged drivers of two vans that U.S. Customs and Border Protection stopped last month.

Monday’s preliminary hearing was meant to establish evidence to support a criminal indictment against Gheorghe. 

Early in the morning of April 25, camera sensors alerted U.S. Border Protection and Customs that two vans traveled from Canada into the United States at a remote crossroads east of Sweet Grass, according to court documents. Kovatch described the area as a “hotbed” of illegal border crossings. Border Patrol agents tracked the vans as they moved south on Interstate 15 and eventually pulled them over at 3:21 a.m.

Agents took all 21 of the people to the Sweet Grass Border Patrol station for “investigation and processing.” Kovatch testified that the vans were filled with luggage and more people than available seats, especially for the children.

Just seven of the occupants ended up in court, including the two alleged drivers, Adi Ghoerghe and Ionut Ghoerghe, who are brothers. Prosecutors charged those two with the most serious offenses among the group: bringing in and transporting illegal aliens. The other five were charged with illegally entering or reentering the country.

Court testimony on Monday described the 21 occupants as a large family, many of whom moved around a lot. Ionut Gheorghe, for example, left Romania in 2007 and lived in Italy and Germany for several years, court documents say. In 2021, he reached Mexico and allegedly “paid for a car ride” to get to Yuma, Arizona. He lived in South Dakota and New York City, where court documents say he “played violin for money until he was run off because he did not have a permit.” Ionut Gheorghe went to Canada to live with a brother in Montreal before his recent arrest in Montana.

Court documents outlined similar stories of living in various locations for others arrested in the group.

During Monday’s court hearing, Kovatch said that the decision to deport the American children was to keep them with their mothers.

“The reason the children were removed was because the parents were removed,” he said.

Great Falls defense attorney Samir Aarab characterized the evidence against Ionut Gheorghe as a “chain of inferences” and said nothing shows Ionut Gheorghe actually crossing the border. The border sensors snapped photos of the vans moving along the border, both on the Canadian side and the American side, according to Kovatch. Court documents state that Ionut Gheorge admitted to crossing the border illegally with his family.

“He said he understood and that he was just trying to provide a better life for his children and wife,” Kovatch said of Ionut Gheorghe’s arrest.

Kovatch also testified that his unit at the Sweet Grass station has no dash cams or body cams to record interactions and that there was no recording of the interrogation of Gheorghe. Aarab said that the deported women and children could have been witnesses in the case.

A spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told Montana Free Press that the agency had no involvement in this case. A spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection didn’t respond to an inquiry Monday afternoon. 

A spokesperson for the Canada Border Services Agency said that border and immigration information is considered private and that the agency would not comment on specific cases.

At the conclusion of Monday’s hearing, U.S. Magistrate John Johnston said that there is sufficient probable cause against Ionut Gheorghe for the criminal case to proceed.

This story originally appeared in the Montana Free Press, which can be found online at montanafreepress.org.