Ximena Arias-Cristobal, Georgia college faces deportation by ICE after running red light. How a Mexican-National’s family failure to properly navigate migration laws along with questions of civil rights led to an entire Dalton, Georgia family facing deportation.
A Georgia teen faces deportation after running a red light, after authorities discovered her entire family has been living illegally in the US for nearly 15 years.
Ximena Arias-Cristobal, 19, a Mexican national and a student at Dalton State Community College was pulled over by police in Dalton, Ga. on May 5 when she failed to adhere to a ‘no turn on red’ sign.
How a driving infraction led to one Georgia teen’s dreams dashed
Arias-Cristobal, who was driving without a driver’s license told arresting officers she had an international driver’s license, according to WTVC.
Asked to produce the document, the 19 year old admitted not having it on her person, with the teen telling cops her mother had taken it away from her along with her saying she had been instructed not to be driving. Why would soon become obvious…
The officer who pulled her over attempted to speak to the teen’s mom and the owner of the car, but neither of them spoke English, according to the report.
States the Georgia Department of Driver Services: ‘If a non-US citizen establishes residency in Georgia, he or she must obtain a Georgia driver’s license within thirty (30) days.’
Arias-Cristobal was arrested and charged with driving without a valid license and failure to obey traffic control devices. Cops decided to bring in Aria-Cristobal to determine her legal status. That’s when the teen’s worse nightmares unfolded.
Arias-Cristobal was processed through the federal database, which confirmed she wasn’t a US citizen or a legal permanent resident.
In 2010, Arias-Cristobal was brought into the US illegally by her parents when she was only 4 years old during the family’s move from Mexico City to the Dalton area — over 30 miles from the Tennessee and Georgia border.
Because of her non-citizen status, Arias-Cristobal was paying out-of-state tuition for school despite living in the area.
Having determined she was residing in the U.S illegally, the college student was transported to the Whitfield County Jail, a partner of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s 287(G) program, used to identify illegal aliens in the country.
‘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 states.
Ximena Arias-Cristobal father also being held by ICE
Soon after Arias-Cristobal was brought to ICE’s Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Ga., where her father, Jose Francisco Arias-Tovar, who ironically was also being held after being stopped for a driving infraction last month.
Arias-Tovar was arrested two weeks ago when he was pulled over for driving 19 miles over the speed limit, WTVC reported.
The father, who owns his own company, was denied proper paperwork to remain in the US. It was not known if he ever applied for 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.
Arias-Cristobal was not eligible for the DACA program, having been brought into the country a year after the program ended, according to Hannah Jones, the woman the teen babysat for in the past.
Jones created a GoFundMe to raise money for an immigration attorney and bond for the teen. As of Thursday night, over $61K had been raised.
Chattanooga, Tennessee-based immigration attorney Terry Olsen called out the family’s detention, calling it a civil rights issue.
‘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.
A case of following immigration rules or civil rights?
A civil rights issue or a family who hadn’t followed the legal process required to seek out legal validation as arduous, onerous, convoluted and intimidating it may be for a non English speaker, under the threat of deportation at any undetermined time.
The saga of the family who now faces impending deportation comes amid intensifying efforts by the incoming Trump administration to make illegal immigration its lynchpin issue, while at the same time throwing into question, the legality, the severity and even due process of individuals singled out for allegedly ‘breaking the law’.
Olsen said Arias-Cristobal’s mother will be arrested and deported within a month and her daughters will be taken with her to keep the family together.
And then there were these comments below on the web that caught this author’s attention. See what you think?
‘I have multiple friends from Mexico who are here legally. They have followed all the proper procedures. It’s a long, tedious process, but they’ve done it. They are as offended by those who do it illegally as natural-born citizens. They don’t understand what gives someone else the right to circumvent the process they were able to follow.’
‘Deportations are a necessary, especially when the Biden Administration intentionally allowed it. But cases like Ximena Arias–Cristobal’s show where grace and common sense must apply. Living in the U.S. since she was 4 and now studying at Dalton State College, she’s built a life here. A minor traffic violation shouldn’t erase years of contribution and potential. We need a system that upholds the law but also recognizes humanity, especially for young people chasing the American Dream.’
‘They had 30 years to become citizens or get the proper paperwork. Not only that, but papa was already in the slammer for a road violation that led to ICE. she CHOSE not to learn from that experience. It’s too bad because it sounds like they were working and trying to better themselves. Too bad they didn’t do it the right way.’
