Utah college student arrested and faces deportation after information is shared in Signal group chat with ICE agents
A Utah college student was arrested and now faces possible deportation after her information was shared by police in a Signal group chat that included agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Caroline Dias Goncalves, 19, who has been in the U.S. since 2012 when she moved with her family from Brazil, is currently detained in Colorado following her arrest on June 5 in Grand Junction.
She was pulled over by a Mesa County Sheriff's Office deputy for a traffic violation. Bodycam footage released by the sheriff's office shows that an officer, identified as Investigator Alexander Zwinck, claimed Dias Goncalves was driving too closely to a semi-truck, according to NBC News.
She was released with a warning, but moments later, ICE agents swooped, arrested her and took her to an immigration detention center.
The sheriff's office stated that the deputy who pulled Dias Goncalves over for the traffic stop had shared information in a Signal group chat that included local, state, and federal law enforcement personnel working on drug interdiction efforts in western Colorado.
'We were unaware that the communication group was used for anything other than drug interdiction efforts, including immigration,' the sheriff's office told Fox 13 Salt Lake City. 'We have since removed all Mesa County Sheriff's Office members from the communication group.'
An investigation by the sheriff's office showed that ICE agents had been using material collected in the chat for immigration purposes.
'Unfortunately, [the chat] resulted in the later contact between ICE and Miss Dias Goncalves,' the sheriff's office said, adding that ICE's use of the information provided by the deputy contradicts Colorado state law.
Colorado law restricts coordination between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities, but does not fully prohibit it.
Dias Goncalves is one of 2.5 million ' Dreamers ' living in the U.S. — undocumented immigrants brought into the country as children. During the initial traffic stop, she told Zwinck that she was born in Brazil and has lived in Utah for 12 years.
The bodycam footage shows the pair chatting about her attendance at the University of Utah and her plans to start nursing school in the spring. Their interaction, which lasted about 20 minutes, ended with Zwink telling her to 'take it easy.'
Dias Goncalves is now in ICE custody at the Denver Contract Detention Facility.
Relatives told The Salt Lake Tribune that she had arrived in the U.S. as a child with her family on a tourist visa, which they overstayed out of fear of returning to Brazil, having experienced violence.
Dias Goncalves and her parents eventually applied for asylum three years ago, which provided them with work permits, 'limited' driver's licenses, and Social Security numbers. She had been working and attending the university on a merit scholarship.
The asylum case remains pending.
Friends and family have set up a GoFundMe page to raise money to cover legal fees. The page reads: 'Caroline has always followed the law, passionately pursued her education and dreamed of a future full of opportunity. Yet she now finds herself unlawfully detained, frightened and far from the safety and support she deserves.'
A relative told the Tribune that Dias Goncalves is being held in a cell with 17 other women, the food is inedible, and the staff treat them roughly.
Her case mirrors that of fellow Dreamer Ximena Arias-Cristobal, also 19, and, like Dias Goncalves, a recipient of TheDream.Us national scholarship, which helps undocumented youths with the costs of college education.
Arias-Cristobal was pulled over in Dalton, Georgia, in May, and since being released from detention, has been speaking up about the risks faced by Dreamers as the Trump administration aggressively steps up its detention and deportations of those in the country illegally, despite a promise to focus on criminals.
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