A Georgia college student is set to be deported after running a red light, which led authorities to unravel that her entire family has been living illegally in the United States for 15 years. Mexican national Ximena Arias-Cristobal, 19, was stopped by police in Dalton, Georgia, on May 5 after she ignored a "no turn on red" sign.
Arias-Cristobal, a Dalton State Community College student, didn't have a valid driver's license but claimed she had an international driver's license, WTVC reported. She confessed to Dalton police officers that she didn't have the international permit with her because her mother took it from her and she wasn't supposed to be driving.
Careless Mistake Exposes Illegal Stay
In 2010, Arias-Cristobal was brought into the United States illegally by her parents when she was just 4 years old as the family relocated from Mexico City to the Dalton area, located more than 30 miles from the Georgia-Tennessee border.
Due to her non-citizen status, Arias-Cristobal had to pay out-of-state tuition for college even though she had lived in the area for years.
According to the police report, the officer who stopped her tried to speak with both her mother and the registered owner of the vehicle, but neither could speak English.
Arias-Cristobal was arrested and charged with driving without a valid license and not following traffic signals.
She was transported to the Whitfield County Jail, a partner of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement through the 287(g) program—a system designed to identify illegal immigrants living in the United States.
"This program operates based on a series of reviews and background checks completed only after an inmate is already arrested for an Offense under Georgia Law," the jail's operation guide said.
Final Days in Jail Before Deportation
Arias-Cristobal was processed through the federal immigration system, which verified that she is not a U.S. citizen. She was then transferred to ICE's Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia—the same facility where her father, Jose Francisco Arias-Tovar, is currently being held.
Arias-Tovar was reportedly arrested last month after being stopped for driving 19 miles per hour above the speed limit. Although he runs his own business, he lacked the necessary legal documents to stay in the United States. It remains unclear whether he ever sought U.S. citizenship.
"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," Arias-Cristobal's younger sister told WTVC.
Hannah Jones, who previously employed Arias-Cristobal as a babysitter, explained that the teen did not qualify for the DACA program because she arrived in the U.S. a year after the cutoff date.
Jones has since launched a GoFundMe campaign to help cover the costs of an immigration lawyer and bail for Arias-Cristobal. Meanwhile, immigration attorney Terry Olsen from Chattanooga, Tennessee, slammed the decision to detain the family.
"We do see that ICE is really trying to find any and all methods to say that an international has some way violated the process and their status. What's concerning is that when they are being checked at these checkpoints or at the stops, ICE does not have their entire immigration file in front of them, they're not looking at all of it, and they're just relying on one item. This is a civil rights issue," Olsen told the outlet.
Olsen said that Arias-Cristobal's mother will be arrested and deported next month, and her daughters will likely accompany her so the family can remain united.
