Georgia college student faces deportation after being mistakenly pulled over during traffic stop
A traffic stop in Dalton, Georgia, which police admitted was a mistake, led to a 19-year-old Mexico-born college student's arrest and possible deportation.
The Dalton Police Department on Monday said it was dropping the traffic-related charges against Ximena Arias-Cristobal that led to her initial arrest last week. But she remains at an ICE detention facility in southwest Georgia.
"After suffering for more than a week in police and ICE custody, it turns out this was all the result of a police mistake. The tragedy of our system is that there is no immediate remedy for Ximena, as ICE does not care about fairness or justice," her attorney, Dustin Baxter, said in a statement to NBC News.
"We will fight for her release at her upcoming bond hearing, and then try to restore some sense of normalcy to her life," he said.
The ordeal began May 5 when Arias-Cristobal, who is in the country without authorization, was pulled over by Dalton police. She was accused of making an improper turn and driving without a valid driver's license, but dashcam video of the traffic stop showed that the officer meant to stop another vehicle.
"After a review of the dash cam video of the traffic stop, it was determined that Ms. Arias-Cristobal's vehicle appeared similar to the offending vehicle but was not the vehicle that made an improper turn," police said Monday in a news release.
The release stated that a black pickup truck made an illegal right turn on red at an intersection. The officer could not immediately pursue the truck because he was behind another vehicle that had stopped at the red light. Arias-Cristobal was driving a dark gray pickup truck.
According to local news reports, she has lived in the Dalton area since her family came to the U.S. when she was 4 years old. She is enrolled at Dalton State Community College.
Her arrest sparked protests in the city.
Chris Crossen, assistant chief of police, said at a news conference that he "regrets the circumstances that led us to where we are here today."
But added that the department has "no part in the other proceedings."
Online records show that Arias-Cristobal is being held at the Stewart Detention Center, an ICE detention facility in Georgia. Her father, Jose Francisco Arias-Tovar, is being held at the same facility. He was detained about two weeks ago following a traffic stop.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a post on X that Arias-Tovar "admitted that he is in the country illegally."
"The family will be able to return to Mexico together," the department said. "Mr. Tovar had ample opportunity to seek a legal pathway to citizenship. He chose not to. We are not ignoring the rule of law."
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
22 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Is it time to talk impeachment? Given Trump's actions, it may be overdue.
In the few months since Donald Trump returned to the presidency, he has issued so many executive orders and pronouncements on domestic and foreign policy that he may have overwhelmed our intellectual and emotional energy to fully appreciate their impact. Whether or not you approve of the direction he wants to take the country, he took office after being duly elected. Many of his initiatives are within his authority. Generally speaking, Trump has the right to indulge his ideological obsessions and advance policies that benefit the economic class that 'brung him to the dance.' But, what of those executive orders that exceed the limited authority proscribed for the presidency — powers meant to be shared with other branches of government, or those that defy Supreme Court interpretations of the Constitution? Say goodbye to democracy — and our freedoms — if we ignore James Madison's warning in the Federalist Papers No. 47 that "The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny." On Jan. 20, 2025, Trump took the Presidential Oath of Office to 'faithfully execute the Office of President' and 'preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." Yet just three months later, when asked if he agreed with Secretary of State Marco Rubio's statement that every person in the United States is entitled to due process, Trump told NBC's Kristen Welker that he's not so sure. 'I don't know. I'm not a lawyer.' The Constitution states that 'no person' shall be 'deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.' It says 'person,' not 'citizen.' Not surprisingly, the Supreme Court has held that everyone in this country have certain basic rights. When Welker reminded the president of this constitutionally guaranteed right, Trump complained that this only slows him down: 'I was elected to get them the hell out of here, and the courts are holding me from doing it.' This helps explain why democracy requires an independent judiciary — to check the actions of the executive (from local police to presidents) to ensure that government allegations of wrongdoing are accurate and mistakes are not made. Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the recent high-profile example, is Salvadoran, married to an American citizen with three American-born children who has lived in U.S. since 2011. He was granted protected status by an immigration judge in 2019. Nevertheless he was detained by ICE in March and deported to El Salvador without a hearing. The Trump administration originally acknowledged that he was mistakenly deported, and a federal judge ordered that he be returned to the U.S. The Supreme Court unanimously upheld this directive. As of this writing the Trump administration has done nothing to facilitate his return. The President even quipped that he could do so, but he will not. The government now asserts that Abrego Garcia's deportation wasn't a mistake, claiming he is a member of the Salvadoran gang MS-13, but declines to provide evidence supporting the claim. As if to emphasize contempt for constitutional rights, deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller recently said that the Trump administration was considering suspending Habeas Corpus to block an immigrant's right to challenge their detention before being deported. There are other examples of presidential defiance of the law, such as the illegal impoundment of congressionally authorized appropriations and constitutional freedoms. So, it is time to insert the 'I' word (impeachment) into civic conversations. I am not naïve: impeachment is neither imminent nor likely — for now. The disgrace of this period, as future historians will note, is that whether the President has intimidated Congress into silence or they applaud his overly expansive use of power, the legislative branch has abandoned its oversight responsibility. For now, Congress is content to look the other way. Nevertheless, we must begin to insert 'impeachable offenses' into civic conversations. If we don't, we will be complicit in accepting that the aberrant behavior of this President is the new normal for the evaluation of future presidents. Howard L. Simon served as executive director of the ACLU of Florida from 1997-2018. He resides in Gainesville and is president of Clean Okeechobee Waters Foundation, Inc. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Talk of impeachment hasn't come up. How long can that last? | Opinion
CNN
44 minutes ago
- CNN
Judge issues order halting deportation of Colorado antisemitic attack suspect's family
A federal judge on Wednesday ordered a halt to the deportation of the family of the Egyptian man charged after an antisemitic attack in Boulder, Colorado – a day after the White House said the family's deportation was imminent. Judge Gordon P. Gallagher of the US District Court in Colorado directed the federal government to stop the deportation proceedings of Mohamed Soliman 's wife and five children. They were taken into ICE custody Tuesday. 'Defendants SHALL NOT REMOVE,' Soliman's wife and her five children from the District of Colorado or the United States 'unless or until this Court or the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit vacates this order,' Gallagher wrote in his order. Gallagher further stated, 'Moreover, the Court finds that deportation without process could work irreparable harm and an order must (be) issue(d) without notice due to the urgency this situation presents.' The White House had said Tuesday the family was facing expedited removal from the United States, writing in a post on X, 'THEY COULD BE DEPORTED AS EARLY AS TONIGHT.' Soliman's family was held 'incommunicado' and without access to representation after they were placed in ICE custody on Tuesday, their lawyers said in court records, according to the Washington Post. The attorneys wrote that the family applied for asylum, emphasizing that the administration can't legally speed up their deportation. The suspect's wife was surprised when she learned her husband had been arrested, her lawyers said in the documents, according to the Post. She said that she and their five children should not suffer the consequences of Soliman's arrest. 'Punishing individuals — including children as young as four-years-old — for the purported actions of their relatives is a feature of medieval justice systems or police state dictatorships, not democracies,' family attorney Eric Lee said in a Wednesday statement to CNN. 'The detention and attempted removal of this family is an assault on core democratic principles and must provoke widespread opposition in the population, immigrant and non-immigrant alike.' Soliman's family members have not been charged in the attack. The FBI identified Soliman as the lone suspect in the attack, in which he is accused of using a makeshift flamethrower and Molotov cocktails to set people on fire at an event in downtown Boulder held in support of hostages in Gaza. He now faces a federal hate crime charge and state charges of attempted murder. His family is being held in Florence, Colorado, and immigration officials had said they planned to transfer them to a detention facility in Texas, a law enforcement source said. It remains unclear to which country the family was intended to be deported. Soliman, his 41-year-old wife, and their children — an 18-year-old daughter, two minor daughters, and two minor sons — are Egyptian citizens, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The family arrived in the US in August 2022 and were initially granted entry until February 2023, DHS said in a Wednesday statement. Soliman applied for asylum in September 2022 in Denver, the agency said. In 2023, Soliman received a two-year work authorization that expired in March of this year, a DHS official told CNN earlier this week. Following the attack, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem directed multiple federal agencies under her purview to ramp up the review of immigration records and 'crackdown on visa overstays,' DHS said Wednesday. 'We are investigating to what extent his family knew about this heinous attack, if they had knowledge of it, or if they provided support to it. I am continuing to pray for the victims of this attack and their families. Justice will be served,' Noem said in a statement Wednesday. Soliman told detectives after he was arrested that 'no one' knew about his attack plans and that 'he never talked to his wife or family about it,' according to the affidavit for his arrest filed Sunday. There were at least 15 victims, between the ages of 25 and 88, in the attack in Boulder, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Denver office. A dog was also injured, the agency said. Soliman appeared in state court Monday and is expected to appear in state court again Thursday and in federal court on Friday. CNN has reached out to his attorney for comment. Investigators are examining a notebook that contains a manifesto and multiple videos Soliman recorded on his phone, according to a law enforcement source. The manifesto is written in English but certain lines written in Arabic were being translated as of Tuesday, the source told CNN, noting police recovered the notebook after Soliman told them where to find it. The videos Soliman recorded are in both English and Arabic, the source said. One video has cropped up on social media that appears to show Soliman speaking in Arabic while driving. CNN has not independently verified the authenticity of the video. Officials have also been working to assess whether Soliman has any possible mental health issues, a source familiar with the investigation previously told CNN. CNN's Jamiel Lynch, John Miller, Josh Campbell and Jillian Sykes contributed to this report.
Newsweek
an hour ago
- Newsweek
ICE Hits New Migrant Arrest Record In Single Day: What To Know
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. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) hit a record-breaking milestone this week, arresting more than 2,200 undocumented migrants in a single day. The arrests were made on Tuesday and come as the agency responds to increasing pressure from the White House to ramp un enforcement operations, according to NBC News. Newsweek has contacted ICE for comment outside of office hours. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers taking part in an operation in Silver Spring, Maryland, in January. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers taking part in an operation in Silver Spring, Maryland, in January. Alex Brandon/AP Why It Matters The spike in arrests comes just days after White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller confirmed that President Donald Trump's administration will seek to triple the number of ICE arrests. Trump has vowed to carry out the largest mass deportation program in U.S. history. The White House has said it will go after the "worst of the worst", and said anyone living in the country illegally is a "criminal." What To Know The new detention figures represent roughly a 37 percent increase in daily arrests. Tod Lyons, ICE's acting director, said on Fox & Friends on Sunday that ICE was previously averaging around 1,6000 arrests per day. In the first 100 days of Trump's administration, federal immigration agents arrested 66,463 migrants without legal status and removed 65,682 individuals, according to ICE. ICE has deployed a new strategy of making arrests at immigration courthouses and scheduled immigration appointments. More than 1,500 migrants with criminal records were arrested on Monday in Massachusetts as a part of one of the largest operations carried out under the administration, according to ICE officials. What People Are Saying Miller told Fox News' Sean Hannity in May: "We are looking to set a goal of a minimum of 3,000 arrests for ICE every day and President Trump is going to keep pushing to get that number up higher each and every single day so we can get all of the Biden the illegals that were flooded into our country for four years out of our country." Setareh Ghandehari, advocacy director of Detention Watch Network said in a statement shared with Newsweek: "'Operation At Large' is a hyper-militarized police state and an inflection point in the rising authoritarianism of Trump's regime. The operation doubles ICE's lock-up quota to a shocking 3,000 people a day, deepens interagency police collaboration including with the FBI, and once approved, will supercharge the already massive police force with up to 21,000 National Guard troops. "This authoritarian campaign will reportedly weaponize the IRS to target people using tax information and even grant them the unprecedented authority to make arrests. Everyone should be horrified. This is not a 'crackdown' – this is an affront on daily life." Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, said in a post on X, formerly Twitter: "Arrests at immigration courts continue nationwide, and are getting even more arbitrary." What Happens Next The administration is expected to increase enforcement operations as it looks to remove millions of undocumented migrants as part of the GOP's flagship mass deportation policy.
