British family deported after illicit US border crossing

This June 22, 2018, photo shows the Berks County Residential Center in Bern Township, Pa. Several members of an extended British family who made an unauthorized crossing into the United States from Canada have been deported after nearly two weeks in federal custody at a Pennsylvania detention center Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2019. (Bill Uhrich/Reading Eagle via AP)

READING, Pa. – A British family that made an unauthorized crossing from Canada into the United States has been deported after nearly two weeks in federal custody.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Wednesday the Connors family has been returned to England. The family includes four adults and three children, including an infant and toddler twins.

Family members say they mistakenly crossed the border into Washington state while trying to avoid an animal in the road. An affidavit says family members were "treated like criminals" by their U.S. jailers and held in a series of cold and dirty immigration facilities, including one in Pennsylvania that's long been criticized by immigration activists.

U.S. officials say the family crossed the border on purpose, adding that two of the family members had previously been denied entry to the U.S.