College student's immigration detention highlights Dreamers' growing deportation risks
A traffic stop made in error upended the life of a 19-year-old woman who was born in Mexico and has lived in Georgia most of her life. It also shows the growing risks undocumented young immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, also known as Dreamers, face under President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.
Ximena Arias-Cristobal is opening up about how being wrongly pulled over by local police in the city of Dalton last month put her on immigration authorities' radar and made her susceptible to deportation.
"There's no way to go back to how my life was before," Arias-Cristobal told NBC News during a virtual conversation with reporters on Tuesday.
Arias-Cristobal has lived in the U.S. since she was 4 years old. 'Georgia is my home,' she said.
When Dalton police stopped Arias-Cristobal on May 5, they accused her of making an improper turn and driving without a valid driver's license. A week later, all traffic-related charges against her were dropped after dashcam video of the traffic stop showed that the officer meant to stop another vehicle.
Still, Arias-Cristobal spent two days in county jail and two and a half weeks at an immigration detention center in rural Georgia.
Her case shows what nearly 2.5 million Dreamers living in the U.S. face as the Trump administration steps up the pace of deportations of immigrants who don't have criminal charges or convictions, despite the president's campaign vows to prioritize the deportations of violent criminals.
'Dreamers are under attack,' said Gaby Pacheco, president of TheDream.US, an organization helping Dreamers go to college.
An athlete and a honor student, Arias-Cristobal attended Dalton public schools her whole life.
Arias-Cristobal received a national scholarship from TheDream.US, which runs a highly regarded scholarship program for undocumented youth with financial needs. She's pursing a degree in finance and economics at Dalton State Community College.
'We have thousands of Dreamers apply to TheDream.US, like Ximena. The reason why Ximena got this scholarship is because she was one of the best,' Pacheco said, adding that Arias-Cristobal demonstrated to be a good student at school, part of the running team and an active member of her church and community.
Two weeks ago, Arias-Cristobal was released on the minimal amount of bond possible under the law, $1,500. The Dalton police officer who first arrested Arias-Cristobal resigned on May 23, two days after she was released from immigration detention.
Arias-Cristobal said she's in the process of obtaining a visa. To ensure nothing jeopardizes her immigration case, her attorney advised her to avoid going out and to stay indoors as much as possible.
Despite being back in her home, she said she still feels trapped. 'I am not just an immigrant. I am a human being. I am a Georgian and I am an American without papers,' she said.
According to Pacheco, Arias-Cristobal is one of nearly 12,000 TheDream.US scholars who have gone on to pursue college degrees, medical school and even work as nurses, engineers and at Fortune 500 companies.
'In recent months, multiple TheDream.US scholars and alumni have either been arrested, detained, and even deported,' Pacheco said.
"Dreamers are part of the American community," she said. "If we agree that Dreamers contribute to this country, if we agree they belong, what is stopping us? We need permanent legislative protection for them. We need a path to permanent legal status for them."
Polls and surveys have consistently shown that most U.S. adults favor granting permanent legal status and a pathway to citizenship to Dreamers. Trump even told NBC News' 'Meet the Press' in December that he wanted to work with Democrats and Republicans on a plan 'to do something about the Dreamers.'
When asked about possible plans for immigration protections for Dreamers, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told NBC News in a statement Wednesday, "The Trump Administration's top priority is deporting criminal illegal aliens from the United States, of which there are many."
"President Trump is fulfilling his promise to Make America Safe again, secure our border, and remove criminal illegals,' Jackson said.
NBC News has also contacted the Department of Homeland Security seeking comment.
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, is one of the few deportation protections that exist for eligible Dreamers, but it's currently available to about 530,000 people who were granted DACA before 2017, according to FWD.us, an immigration advocacy organization.
DACA has been closed for new applicants since legal challenges to end the program began during the first Trump administration, shutting out an estimated 600,000 people like Arias-Cristobal who would have been eligible for it.
"Not being able to apply for DACA is something that pains me greatly," Arias-Cristobal said in Spanish.
In addition to Arias-Cristobal, other Dreamers have been deported or detained.
One of them is Wualner Sauceda, a middle school science teacher in South Florida who was deported to Honduras in February. On Jan. 7, a couple of weeks before Trump took office, Sauceda was detained following a check-in with immigration officials. He showed up hoping to figure out other legal pathways to remain in the country after his asylum application was denied under the Biden administration.
Sauceda, 24, came to the United States as a young teen, attended public schools in South Florida and got a TheDream.US scholarship that allowed him to attend Florida International University.
Just last week, Marcelo Gomes Da Silva was pulled over while driving his father's car. Immigration authorities made the traffic stop because they were looking for Gomes Da Silva's father but, after learning the 18-year-old was unlawfully present in the U.S., they placed him in an immigration detention center.
Gomes Da Silva, who was born in Brazil, had been living in Massachusetts since he was 6 years old, attending public schools in the town of Milford. Community members there described him as an athlete, a musician and an exceptional high school junior with an infectious smile.
In a phone call from detention, the teen told his girlfriend, Julianys Rentas Figueroa, that immigration authorities 'put chains around his ankles, on his wrists, ' NBC Boston reported.
Arias-Cristobal related to the experience. "Being shackled at the wrist, waist and ankles," she said, "is something I'll never forget."
"It left a mark on me emotionally and mentally," Arias-Cristobal added. "It's heartbreaking and it's something that changed me forever."
As she continues fighting her case, Arias-Cristobal said she hopes to "have a future here in the United States" and "be a voice" for undocumented people, students and Dreamers.
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