Teen arrested by ICE faces deportation despite dismissed traffic charges

Yahoo

14-05-2025

Dalton, Georgia — A 19-year-old Mexican-born Georgia woman who has lived in the U.S. since she was 4 continues to face deportation, despite the dismissal of the traffic charges that led Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to arrest her.
In her first interview since being detained by ICE, Ximena Arias Cristobal told CBS News said her biggest worry is not being able to stay in Georgia, after spending most of her life — around 15 years — in the U.S.
"My life is here, and I'm scared I'm going to have to start all over again in a country that I don't know," Arias Cristobal said over a phone call from inside an ICE detention center in Georgia where she is being held. She's been held at that facility since she was taken into custody by a Dalton policeman on May 5 on charges of making an improper turn and driving without a license.
A college student who graduated from Dalton's high school last year, Arias Cristobal came to the U.S. without authorization in 2010. While she came to the U.S. as a child, she did not qualify for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy that currently protects half a million undocumented immigrants known as "Dreamers" from deportation. She arrived after the Obama-era program's June 2007 cut-off date.
Before President Trump took office for a second time, Arias Cristobal — a young undocumented immigrant without a criminal record who has lived in the U.S. for many years — would likely not have been arrested by ICE, even without the DACA protections.
But in its bid to oversee what it has promised will be the largest mass deportation campaign in American history, the Trump administration has vastly expanded who can be arrested and deported, revoking Biden-era rules that directed ICE to focus on arresting people deemed to be national security threats, serious criminals and migrants who recently entered the U.S. illegally.
On Monday, officials in Dalton dismissed the two traffic charges against Arias Cristobal, saying the police officer had stopped the wrong car. It was that traffic stop that landed Arias Cristobal in Whitfield County Jail, where she was detained by ICE. The county is one of hundreds of jurisdictions that have agreements to cooperate with ICE by turning over noncitizen detainees.
Despite the dismissal of the traffic charges, Arias Cristobal continues to face deportation to Mexico, alongside her father, who was detained by ICE in April, also after a traffic stop. They're both being held at the Stewart ICE detention facility in Lumpkin, Georgia.
In a statement to CBS News, Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said the facts in Arias Cristobal's case "haven't changed," even after the traffic violations were dismissed.
"Both father and daughter were in this country illegally and they have to face the consequences," McLaughlin said. She did not dispute that Arias Cristobal and her father do not have criminal records.
"They're not criminals"
Ndaitha Cristobal said her daughter had an otherwise typical American upbringing in north Georgia, despite living in the U.S. without valid immigration documents.
She said Arias Cristobal is an avid runner who competed in cross-country races in high school and worked as a babysitter.
"Ximena is a calm girl. She's dedicated to studying. She's a very active girl. She's a girl who sets goals for herself. She is very disciplined," Cristobal said in Spanish outside the family's home in Dalton, a city roughly an hour and a half north of Atlanta where half the residents are Latino, many of them immigrants.
Cristobal said her eldest daughter is also very close to her two younger sisters — ages 12 and 9 — who are both American citizens. Aurora, the 12-year-old, said she's having trouble concentrating in school, as she's constantly worried about her family's fate.
"My family's a good family … they're not criminals," Aurora said. "They might have came here illegally, but they came here to fulfill their dreams."
Like her eldest daughter and husband, Cristobal is in the U.S. illegally. She has become the family's main breadwinner since her husband's arrest.
Aurora said she's scared her mother could also find herself in an ICE detention center. "She's the last hope we have. She's the grown adult that we have here. She's the one that's been working, paying the bills," Aurora said.
Even in a ruby red Georgia community represented by conservative firebrand and immigration hardliner Marjorie Taylor Greene in Congress, Arias Cristobal's arrest has made many uneasy. President Trump bested former Vice President Kamala Harris by 44 percentage points in Whitfield County in the 2024 election.
"There's been an uprising of heartbreak for our community, because, you know, a lot of people felt like we were going after the hard criminals, and unfortunately, good people are getting caught on the wash on this issue," said Georgia state lawmaker Kasey Carpenter, a Republican who represents Dalton.
Carpenter said he wrote a letter vouching for Arias Cristobal's character, calling her "an asset" for the local community.
In a statement, Greene defended the handling of Arias Cristobal's case by immigration officials, saying the Trump administration is "upholding our nation's immigration laws."
"While local Dalton officials dropped her charges, the facts remain: she was driving illegally without a license and has no legal basis to remain in the United States," Greene said.
Since being taken into ICE custody, Arias Cristobal has been calling home daily from detention. CBS News was there when she called on Mother's Day.
As her mother wept, Arias Cristobal said that, if given the chance to speak to the president, she would urge him to feel some "compassion," stressing that she and her family members are not criminals. Her family's separation, she added, has been especially painful.
"The hardest part is being ripped away from each other," she said.
Jared Eggleston contributed reporting.
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