Undocumented GA student who was wrongfully pulled over says she's working to stay in the U.S.
The 19-year-old undocumented college student who was wrongfully pulled over by Dalton police and then placed into ICE custody spoke at her Atlanta attorney's office on Tuesday.
'I know everything that I'm going through is unjust,' Ximena Arias-Cristabol said.
'Bottom line, she should've never been arrested,' immigration attorney Dustin Baxter said.
She spent over two weeks in the Stewart Detention Center. During that time, her story made national headlines as family, friends, immigration activists, and community members pushed for the 19-year-old's release.
On Thursday, a federal judge granted Arias-Cristabol bond, and she returned to her Dalton home on Friday night.
RELATED STORIES:
'It changed me': Undocumented GA college student talks about being in ICE custody for 15 days
Traffic stop lands GA college student in ICE custody 2 weeks after same thing happened to father
Georgia college student gets bond at immigration hearing after mistaken arrest
ICE still plans to deport Georgia college student arrested after wrongful traffic stop
GA student taken into ICE custody after traffic stop pulled over by mistake, police say
Marjorie Taylor Greene weighs in on college student facing deportation after wrongful traffic stop
Over the weekend, the Dalton police officer who stopped Arias-Cristabol resigned from the department.
Now, she says she is working to stay here legally.
'I think going through a U-Visa is best for me,' Arias-Cristabol added.
'A U-Visa is a visa for people who have been victims of crimes and that would stem from the circumstances surrounding her arrest,' Baxter told Channel 2's Audrey Washington.
Attorney Joshua McCall, who does not represent Arias-Cristabol, said her case, like many others, is complicated.
'It is extremely difficult and expensive even if you have a path to naturalization, but many of them don't,' McCall said. 'What many people thought was going to happen, which was deporting awful, terrible criminals, has turned into a quota system.'
Baxter said he is working to make sure both Arias-Cristabol and her father can stay in the country permanently.
He said the immigration process may proceed through 2026 or even 2027.
On Tuesday afternoon, Washington asked Arias-Cristobal how she will feel when she is finally a U.S. citizen.
'I will feel great. Like a weight off my chest,' Arias-Cristabol.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBS News
an hour ago
- CBS News
Immigrants at ICE check-ins detained, then held in basement of federal building in Los Angeles, some overnight
Many undocumented immigrants who went to their Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) check-in appointments at a federal building in Los Angeles this week were taken into custody and brought to the basement and held there, some overnight, according to immigration lawyers and family members. It was unclear how many people were affected, but the attorneys told CBS News hundreds of immigrants were detained – dozens in the basement in rooms that could fit up to 30 at a time. CBS News reached out to the representatives of ICE and the Department of Homeland Security for comment. One attorney, Lizbeth Mateo, said ICE officials slated several of her clients for check-ins at the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building in downtown L.A. but when they showed up on Tuesday, they were detained and immediately escorted to the basement. Mateo said a couple and their two children, one of whom is a U.S. citizen, spent the night in a room with no beds and limited access to food and water. Mateo said the father had previously been issued a stay of removal, barring him from deportation but he and his family were detained anyway. His wife was released Wednesday evening along with their children since she needed medical attention due to a high-risk pregnancy. He was still being detained early Friday, Mateo said. "This is something I've never seen before," she added. "Under the first Trump administration, I represented clients with very difficult cases, but never anything like this. Under any other circumstance, he would have been released." On Thursday evening, CBS News spoke to people waiting outside the building who claimed they had relatives in the basement who were texting them. "We are telling them that we are waiting for them outside and to remain calm," a woman using the name Maria to protect her identity told CBS News. "We just want to make sure their children, my nieces, have food." Maria said her brother was in the basement along with his wife and their two children – they'd been scheduled for an ICE check-in on Thursday morning. Their asylum requests had previously been denied in court. The family was apparently still being held early Friday. Immigration lawyers said it was also unclear why people were being held in that basement. "They're having to literally house these immigrants in a makeshift detention center, which on its face is illegal," said Juan Proaño, Chief Executive Officer of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). "It is beyond inhumane treatment for any immigrant and in this particular case, you're talking about families." CBS News obtained internal government data showing arrests by ICE during President Trump's second term topped 100,000 this week, as federal agents intensified efforts to detain unauthorized immigrants in courthouses, worksites and communities across the U.S. ICE recorded more than 2,000 arrests on Tuesday and again on Wednesday, a dramatic increase from the daily average of 660 arrests reported by the agency during Mr. Trump's first 100 days back at the White House, the federal statistics show. During former President Joe Biden's last year in office, ICE averaged roughly 300 daily arrests, according to agency data. The latest numbers show ICE is getting closer to meeting the demands of top administration officials like White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, an immigration hardliner who has forcefully pushed the agency to make "a minimum" of 3,000 arrests each day. "The Trump administration, DHS, ICE have gotten way ahead of themselves. They haven't necessarily planned this properly and don't have the capacity required in order to continue with these large-scale deportations," Proaño asserted. contributed to this report.
Newsweek
an hour ago
- Newsweek
ICE Agents Detain US Marshal By Mistake
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Federal immigration agents accidentally arrested a U.S. Marshal at a federal building that serves as the location of Tucson's immigration court, according to U.S. Marshals Service officials "A Deputy US Marshal who fit the general description of a subject being sought by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) was briefly detained at a federal building in Tucson after entering the lobby of the building," the U.S. Marshals Service said on Thursday. "The Deputy US Marshal's identity was quickly confirmed by other law enforcement officers, and he exited the building without incident." The incident reportedly took place in May, according to the Arizona Daily Star. File photo shows U.S. Marshall in Philadelphia. File photo shows U.S. Marshall in Philadelphia. Butch Comegys/The Times-Tribune via AP Deputy U.S. Marshals play a key role in the federal justice system, handling a range of responsibilities that include securing federal courthouses, protecting judges and court staff, apprehending fugitives, executing federal court orders, and overseeing the custody and transport of federal prisoners. Immigration courts have become the latest battleground between President Donald Trump's immigration enforcers and human rights advocates. Critics argue that enforcement operations single out immigrants who are complying with the legal process by attending court hearings, making them accessible targets for ICE agents under pressure to boost arrest numbers. The White House has ordered ICE to reach quotas as high as 3,000 daily arrests, raising concerns among advocates who say such targets encourage indiscriminate enforcement practises and undermine due process protections. This is a developing story.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
US Targets Niche Gas That China Can't Replace as Trade War Chip
(Bloomberg) -- The US is using its dominance of a niche petroleum gas as a bargaining chip in its trade war with China. Next Stop: Rancho Cucamonga! ICE Moves to DNA-Test Families Targeted for Deportation with New Contract Where Public Transit Systems Are Bouncing Back Around the World US Housing Agency Vulnerable to Fraud After DOGE Cuts, Documents Warn The Global Struggle to Build Safer Cars America supplies China with almost all of its ethane, a product of the shale boom that's used as a building block for making plastics. But the commerce department is now ordering shippers to apply for export licenses, and has told at least one, Enterprise Products Partners LP, that it intends to withhold permits for three China-bound cargoes. The trade war is throwing a spotlight on how the US and China rely on each other for certain commodities — dependencies that both nations are seeking to leverage as they negotiate terms to resolve their dispute. In this case, America is the world's biggest producer of ethane, which is converted into ethylene for plastics factories, and China is its largest customer. The commerce department has cited risks that petroleum products like ethane could be diverted to the military, copying the playbook deployed by Beijing in justifying restrictions on what it calls dual-use items such as rare earths and other critical minerals. 'Ethane is no longer just a byproduct of shale — it's now a geopolitical weapon,' said Julian Renton, lead analyst covering natural gas liquids at East Daley Analytics. 'China bet billions building infrastructure around US ethane, and Washington is now questioning whether that bet should continue to pay off.' America's shale revolution and China's rapid industrialization have coincided this century to create a market where cheap energy byproducts are parlayed into millions of tons of materials used as trash bags and shampoo bottles, car seats and computer keyboards. But companies that prospered from cooperation are now caught in the crossfire of an increasingly antagonistic trade relationship between Washington and Beijing. Chinese firms such as Satellite Chemical Co. operate giant petrochemical plants that process US ethane almost exclusively. US producers like Enterprise Products Partners and Energy Transfer LP rely on exports, almost half of which go to China, to augment sales in their heavily saturated domestic market. Joint Venture Energy Transfer and Satellite formed a joint venture in 2018 to construct a new export terminal on the U.S. Gulf Coast to provide ethane for the Chinese company's plants. It's an example of how infrastructure that facilitates the ethane trade — from specialized terminals and pipelines to expensive tankers purpose-built to carry the fuel — can revolve around long-term relationships between a single buyer and seller, said Renton. The vessels that ship the gas, dubbed Very Large Ethane Carriers, are another case in point. There are about 30 in the world, according to Kpler ship-tracking data, plying dedicated routes. There's not much of a spot market to absorb dislocations in supply or demand, said Renton. 'These aren't oil tankers that can pivot mid-ocean,' he said. At least one VLEC is now idling off the Gulf Coast waiting for its next move, which looks dependent on the US government's approach to licensing. But there's more at stake than the fate of a few cargoes. 'It throws a wrench into multi-billion dollar, multi-decade commercial planning cycles,' said Renton. --With assistance from Sarah Chen. Cavs Owner Dan Gilbert Wants to Donate His Billions—and Walk Again YouTube Is Swallowing TV Whole, and It's Coming for the Sitcom Millions of Americans Are Obsessed With This Japanese Barbecue Sauce Is Elon Musk's Political Capital Spent? Trump Considers Deporting Migrants to Rwanda After the UK Decides Not To ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
