A glamorous college student made a improper turn at a red light and was suddenly arrested and transported to an ICE detention center.
Ximena Arias-Cristobal has lived in Georgia since she was four. But due to local law enforcement’s strict coordination with ICE, she was quickly transported to the Stewart Detention Center after making the illegal turn on Monday, according to ABC 9.
The 19-year-old student was chained by her wrists and ankles as she was taken into the facility where will be trapped for over a month before she sees a judge.
After being pulled over, Arias-Cristobal told the police officer she had an international license – but not with her.
Online records show that she was arrested for driving without a valid license and failure to obey traffic control devices.
Arias-Cristobal had attempted to apply for DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) when she came into the country in 2010 but her mother said the program ended a year earlier.
DACA allowed children of undocumented immigrants in the United States to apply for a protected status that defers deportation every two years.
When Dalton Police booked her into the Whitfield County Jail she was asked of her residency status, per booking procedure.
Ximena Arias-Cristobal, 19, has lived in Whitfield County since she was four but since she made an illegal turn on a red light on Monday she has been held in the Stewart Detention Center
Chained by her wrists and ankles, she was taken into the facility where she is set to stay detained for over a month until she appears before a judge. Online records show that she was arrested for driving without a valid license and failure to obey traffic control devices
A GoFundMe for the teenager, created by Hannah Jones, said that she came into the country in 2010 at the age of four and had not qualified for the DACA program which ended a year earlier
In a cruel twist of fate, Arias-Cristobal is being held in the same facility as her father, Jose Francisco Arias-Tovar who was detained in Tunnel Hill two weeks ago for speeding.
Attorney Terry Olsen said that it’s likely Arias-Cristobal’s mother will be ‘arrested or detained within a month or so.’
On a GoFundMe for the teen, Hannah Jones said Arias-Cristobal had babysat her children for years, and added: ‘We adore her.’
Jones told the news outlet that the teenager is ‘the most precious human’ and believed her international license allowed her to drive legally.
The GoFundMe has raised $31,770 as of Wednesday evening, and are intended to help pay for an immigration lawyer and bond.
Arias-Cristobal’s younger sister told the outlet: ‘They came in with big dreams because they wanted a big future for my older sister. And, you know, my sister goes to college, and she was an honor student since middle school.’
‘And she runs. She loves to run. It’s her passion, and the only reason they came is to follow my sister’s dreams,’ her sister said.
Her mother, translated through Arias-Cristobal’s younger sister, further told the outlet: ‘My dad has his own company, and they called a lawyer to see if they could get a job permit or a visa, and they said that they hadn’t hit that status to get one yet’
Jones said Arias-Cristobal had babysat her children for years, and added: ‘We adore her.’ She told the outlet that the teenager is ‘the most precious human’ and believed her international license allowed her to drive legally
Attorney Terry Olsen said that is is likely Arias-Cristobal’s mother will be ‘arrested or detained within a month or so,’ and that her daughters would be removed with her to keep the family together
Her mother, translated through Arias-Cristobal’s younger sister, further told the outlet: ‘My dad has his own company, and they called a lawyer to see if they could get a job permit or a visa, and they said that they hadn’t hit that status to get one yet.’
Georgia State Representative Kacey Carpenter said in a letter on the teen’s behalf: ‘The reality is, the conversation has always been that we need to get hard criminals out of the country.
‘Unfortunately, the people that aren’t hard criminal are getting caught up in the wash. It seems like we are much better at catching people that committing misdemeanors than people that are actually a danger to society.’
