Latest news with #ImmigrationsandCustomsEnforcement
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Marjorie Taylor Greene: Teen Detained By ICE After Mistaken Arrest Would Be 'Thriving In Mexico'
A Georgia teen who was arrested earlier this month after being mistakenly pulled over at a traffic stop was released from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement custody on Thursday. In an interview the same day, Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene suggested that the young woman, who is undocumented, should be deported. 'My life won't be the same,' Ximena Arias-Cristobal, 19, told NBC affiliate WXIA-TV, reflecting on her time at Stewart Detention Center. 'I think it's changed me as a person, like I said, I guess be more humble, understand people more and just be able to see the people around you.' She was arrested earlier this month on charges of driving without a valid driver's license and for making a right turn on red, but those charges were dropped after the Dalton Police said dash cam footage showed they pulled her over by mistake. However, the police's mistake landed her in ICE custody. Arias-Cristobal came to the United States from Mexico when she was 4 and was a student at Dalton State College at the time of her arrest. Her mother told WXIA that her daughter was not eligible for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an Obama-era program that provides certain undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children with work authorizations and temporary protection from deportation. Being detained at Stewart is 'something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy,' the 19-year-old told the news outlet. 'It's the conditions and the unknown, it's not knowing what's going to happen to me, knowing that I could be sent back to a country that I don't know, having to be torn apart from my family,' she told the outlet. 'It's also the conditions — you don't get much privacy, you get screamed at for every little thing, the food is horrible, they don't pay attention to you, you get sick and they don't care.' Dustin Baxter, Arias-Cristobal's attorney, told the outlet it's possible that if they could show his client's arrest was the result of profiling, she could qualify for a 'U Visa,' meant for victims of certain crimes. Meanwhile, Rep. Greene suggested in an interview with Tennessee-based news outlet WCRB that Arias-Cristobal should be deported. 'The law is the law, and we don't get to pick and choose who gets to break the law and who gets to follow the law,' the MAGA Republican said. 'It's important for us to uphold the law, and that's the most important thing that we can do and our government can do.' Greene said Arias-Cristobal grew up in a 'great area' and received a 'great education' in the U.S. and would be 'thriving in Mexico' if sent back. 'In Mexico today, there's over 1.6 million United States of America (sic) citizens living and thriving in Mexico, and I'm sure she and her family will be able to do the same,' she stated. The lawmaker blamed Arias-Cristobal's parents for her situation, claiming they never pursued 'a path to citizenship when they illegally brought her into the country when she was a young child.' Stewart's father, who was also detained at Stewart after being arrested for a traffic violation, is in the process of applying for a 'cancellation of removal,' Baxter told WXIA. Because her father is a 'person of good moral character,' has been in the U.S. for more than 10 years, and has children who are citizens, he would be 'granted permanent resident status' if he wins his case, the attorney said. If her father becomes a permanent resident, Arias-Cristobal would then have a 'qualifying relative' that could allow her to become a permanent resident as well, he added. Teen Remains In ICE Detention Despite Police Admitting To Pulling Her Over By Mistake Marjorie Taylor Greene Declines To Challenge Jon Ossoff In Georgia Senate Race Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp Won't Run For Senate In Blow To GOP
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Marjorie Taylor Greene: Teen Detained By ICE After Mistaken Arrest Would Be 'Thriving In Mexico'
The Georgia teen arrested earlier this month after being mistakenly pulled over at a traffic stop was released from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement custody on Thursday. In an interview the same day, Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene suggested that the young woman, who is undocumented, should be deported. 'My life won't be the same,' Ximena Arias-Cristobal, 19, told NBC affiliate WXIA-TV, reflecting on her time at Stewart Detention Center. 'I think it's changed me as a person, like I said, I guess be more humble, understand people more and just be able to see the people around you.' She was arrested earlier this month on charges of driving without a valid driver's license and for making a right turn on red, but those charges were dropped after the Dalton Police said dash cam footage showed they pulled her over by mistake. However, the police's mistake landed her in ICE custody. Arias-Cristobal came to the United States from Mexico when she was 4 and was a student at Dalton State College at the time of her arrest. Her mother told WXIA that her daughter was not eligible for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an Obama-era program that provides certain undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children with work authorizations and temporary protection from deportation. Being detained at Stewart is 'something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy,' the 19-year-old told the news outlet. 'It's the conditions and the unknown, it's not knowing what's going to happen to me, knowing that I could be sent back to a country that I don't know, having to be torn apart from my family,' she told the outlet. 'It's also the conditions — you don't get much privacy, you get screamed at for every little thing, the food is horrible, they don't pay attention to you, you get sick and they don't care.' Dustin Baxter, Arias-Cristobal's attorney, told the outlet it's possible that if they could show his client's arrest was the result of profiling, she could qualify for a 'U Visa,' meant for victims of certain crimes. Meanwhile, Rep. Greene suggested in an interview with Tennessee-based news outlet WCRB that Arias-Cristobal should be deported. 'The law is the law, and we don't get to pick and choose who gets to break the law and who gets to follow the law,' the MAGA Republican said. 'It's important for us to uphold the law, and that's the most important thing that we can do and our government can do.' Greene said Arias-Cristobal grew up in a 'great area' and received a 'great education' in the U.S. and would be 'thriving in Mexico' if sent back. 'In Mexico today, there's over 1.6 million United States of America (sic) citizens living and thriving in Mexico, and I'm sure she and her family will be able to do the same,' she stated. The lawmaker blamed Arias-Cristobal's parents for her situation, claiming they never pursued 'a path to citizenship when they illegally brought her into the country when she was a young child.' Stewart's father, who was also detained at Stewart after being arrested for a traffic violation, is in the process of applying for a 'cancellation of removal,' Baxter told WXIA. Because her father is a 'person of good moral character,' has been in the U.S. for more than 10 years, and has children who are citizens, he would be 'granted permanent resident status' if he wins his case, the attorney said. If her father becomes a permanent resident, Arias-Cristobal would then have a 'qualifying relative' that could allow her to become a permanent resident as well, he added. Teen Remains In ICE Detention Despite Police Admitting To Pulling Her Over By Mistake Marjorie Taylor Greene Declines To Challenge Jon Ossoff In Georgia Senate Race Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp Won't Run For Senate In Blow To GOP
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Judge Slaps Down Trump's Foreign Student Crackdown in Scorched-Earth Ruling
A federal judge in California has blocked the Trump administration's move to revoke the legal statuses of thousands of international students across nationwide universities. The injunction—which also stops the administration from arresting or detaining foreign-born students on the basis of immigration status—comes after the Trump administration revoked and then reinstated the legal status of 4,700 international students with little explanation beginning in March, NBC News reported. District Judge Jeffrey White, nominated by President George W. Bush, blasted Trump officials for having 'wreaked havoc' on students' lives on Thursday. In his ruling, he wrote that the injunction should give the plaintiffs a 'measure of stability and certainty that they will be able to continue their studies or their employment without the threat of re-termination hanging over their heads.' The plaintiffs include foreign nationals who were admitted into the U.S. through the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) overseen by the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The Department of Homeland Security (DHS)—led by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem—delivered a letter to Harvard University on Thursday announcing the termination of the school's international student authorization under the SEVP. Although the DHS has since restored the legal statuses of many foreign students, the department signaled that its crackdown on universities is only getting started. 'This administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus,' Noem wrote on X. 'It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments.' She added, 'Let this serve as a warning to all universities and academic institutions across the country.' Judge White wrote that the Trump administration's crusade 'is a uniform policy that uniformly wreaked havoc not only on the lives of Plaintiffs here but on similarly situated F-1 nonimmigrants across the United States and continues do so.' White called the administration's policy changes a 'game of whack-a-mole' for the court system. 'At each turn in this and similar litigation across the nation, Defendants have abruptly changed course to satisfy courts' expressed concerns,' White said. 'It is unclear how this game of whack-a-mole will end unless Defendants are enjoined from skirting their own mandatory regulations.'
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Judge Tears Into DOJ Lawyers for 10 Minutes Over Idiotic Charges
A federal judge slammed the Department of Justice Wednesday for its 'hasty arrest' of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, and agreed to dismiss the ridiculous trespassing charge against the Democratic mayor. U.S. Judge Andre Espionosa questioned why federal prosecutors would arrest Baraka only to retract the charges days later. 'An arrest, particularly of a public figure, is not a preliminary investigative tool. It is a severe action, carrying significant reputational and personal consequences, and it should only be undertaken after a thorough, dispassionate evaluation of credible evidence,' Espionosa said, in a nearly 10-minute tirade against the DOJ's attorneys. Earlier this month, Baraka was arrested by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and charged with trespassing after visiting Delaney Hall, a newly reopened detention facility where he had previously been denied entry. It marked the first immigration-related arrest of a sitting U.S. mayor by the Trump administration and yet another indication that the White House will try to take down just about anybody who gets in the way of its unlawful attack on immigrants. Last month, the FBI arrested a federal judge in Milwaukee for 'obstructing' an attempted deportation. Alina Habba, the acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey and Donald Trump's former lawyer, announced the Democratic mayor's arrest on X. 'NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW,' she wrote, an absurd proclamation given her former client Donald Trump's criminal history. Just 13 days later, however, Habba announced her office would drop the misdemeanor charge against Baraka—though in the same announcement she revealed new charges against Representative LaMonica McIver, who accompanied Baraka on his visit to Delaney Hall. Espinosa scolded Habba's 'worrisome misstep' in Baraka's 'hasty arrest,' calling the retraction of charges 'embarrassing.' He dismissed the charge with prejudice. 'Federal prosecutors serve a single paramount client: justice itself. Your role is not to secure convictions at all costs, nor to satisfy public clamor, nor to advance political agendas,' Espinosa said. 'Your allegiance is to the impartial application of the law, to the pursuit of truth, and to the upholding of due process for all.'
CBS News
20-05-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Who is Jeanette Vizguerra, immigrant rights activist fighting deportation in Denver?
Jeanette Vizguerra, an immigrants' rights activist and herself an immigrant fighting deportation from Denver, has yet to face a federal court hearing to determine if her detention by immigration officials was lawful and if her deportation will go forward. Currently being held at the Aurora ICE Processing Center -- operated by the private prison company GEO Group -- Vizguerra came to Colorado from Mexico in 1997, working as a janitor before becoming a vocal advocate for the rights of immigrants in the United States. Current and former immigration officials say Vizguerra came to the U.S. illegally and has evaded deportation before. She and her supporters believe immigration officials are targeting Vizguerra for "political theater" and retribution for her activism and speech while ignoring dangerous criminals, who should instead be their focus. Who is Jeanette Vizguerra? A 53-year-old mother of four and grandmother, Vizguerra -- whose full name is Jeanette Baez Vizguerra-Ramirez -- fled violence in her former home of Mexico City. She came to Colorado in 1997 and worked as a janitor and union organizer in Denver. She entered the United States illegally but had applied for a visa in the hopes of getting a legal path to citizenship. A 2017 attempt to have her deported stemmed from a 2009 arrest for possessing a Social Security card so that she could work. She pleaded guilty to that charge in 2009, and in 2011, a federal immigration judge issued a final order of deportation, an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement spokesman said at the time. "The only thing that I've done is use false documents to put food on the table of my family," she said at the time through a translator. A 2011 Getty Images file photo shows undocumented Mexican immigrants Jeanette Vizguerra and her husband Salvador holding their 3-month-old daughter Zury in their family apartment on May 30, 2011 in Aurora, Colorado. John Moore / Getty Images For months throughout 2017, she took refuge in a Denver church, as places like churches and schools were long considered "sensitive locations," off limits to immigration officers. President Trump revoked that policy this year, just hours after his inauguration. Rev. Mike Morran of the First Unitarian Society of Denver said at the time that Vizguerra was welcome to stay at his church as long as necessary. "Away from her three children that need her, deporting her to a country she hasn't been in in 20 years. That punishment is obscene for the crime that was committed," Morran said. That 2017 deportation effort was blocked by a judge, delaying it until 2019, after countless community members, organizations, and members of Colorado's Congressional delegation, including Sen. Michael Bennet, Rep. Diana DeGette, and former Rep. Jared Polis, who's now governor, came to her defense. Former Denver Mayor Michael Hancock also urged federal leaders in 2017 to press immigration officials to process Vizguerra's visa application faster to avoid having her torn from her family. "It's a special day for me because I will be able to celebrate Mother's Day with my children and my grandchildren," Vizguerra said through a translator in a news conference at the time. "It's been three months -- very difficult months -- because even though I've been continuing my struggle from inside, I really miss my children." In 2017, the media attention her case was getting led to Time Magazine listing her as one of the 100 most influential people of the year. Jeanette Vizguerra, an undocumented mother of four, poses in the First Unitarian Society Church of Denver in Denver, Colorado, on Feb. 16, 2017. Chris Schneider/AFP via Getty Images In 2021, having been living in the church for about three years, she was told by the Department of Homeland Security that she would not be deported. Still, she worked for citizenship and a more permanent solution to the looming risk of deportation and family separation. This year, the Trump administration has doubled down on its immigration enforcement policies. The total number of deportations this year is not yet clear, but DHS said on March 13 that it had arrested 32,809 people in immigration-related actions, while some media outlets have reported over 100,000 people have been deported by the Trump administration so far in 2025. The agency has not responded to emailed questions from CBS News Colorado and ICE responded to a public records request with pre-2025 data. An appeal to that request is currently pending. Nonetheless, Trump administration officials have repeatedly said it was prioritizing the most violent and dangerous criminals in its search for undocumented immigrants, but included in the people who have been arrested, detained, deported, had visas revoked, or other action taken against them by DHS or ICE include legal residents, student activists, and asylum seekers. Vizguerra was arrested by ICE agents on March 17, sparking outrage and protests from her supporters across the Denver metro area. In May, Vizguerra was named one of the 2025 recipients of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Awards. What are critics saying? ICE confirmed last month that Vizguerra was arrested and said she's been granted due process in her proceedings. "Jeanette Vizguerra-Ramirez, 53, was arrested without incident March 17 by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She will remain in ICE custody pending removal from the United States," an ICE spokesman told CBS News Colorado last month. "Vizguerra is a convicted criminal alien from Mexico who has a final order of deportation issued by a federal immigration judge. She illegally entered the United States near El Paso, Texas, on Dec. 24, 1997, and has received legal due process in U.S. immigration court." That spokesman went on to provide a timeline of the agency's history with Vizguerra: She was taken into ICE custody in 2009 but released on bond. After a federal immigration judge ordered her to leave the U.S. in 2011, she failed to do so and later self-deported to Mexico in 2012, according to ICE. The following year, she was arrested while allegedly re-entering the country and convicted of a misdemeanor. Over the next decade, Vizguerra was granted several temporary stays of deportation, though several of her immigration petitions -- including for a visa and advance parole -- were denied. Former ICE Field Office Director John Fabbricatore testifies before a House Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement hearing on restoring immigration enforcement in America, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP Last month, CBS Colorado sat down with John Fabbricatore -- former director of ICE's Denver field office and candidate for Congress for Colorado's 6th Congressional District in 2024 -- to discuss Vizguerra's case. She should not be allowed to stay in the U.S. or even apply for citizenship, in Fabbricatore's view. "If you enter illegally, there's no pathway to citizenship," he said. Fabbricatore says he met with Vizguerra and that she agreed to leave voluntarily before but then decided to stay in Denver. "She shook my hand on that deal, but instead of showing up at (Denver International Airport), she hid in a church again," he said. What are supporters saying? Vizguerra's efforts to stay in the United States have been supported by high-profile state and local officials, the church that gave her sanctuary, and countless others in the Denver area and beyond. In addition to Denver's former mayor Hancock, current mayor Mike Johnston called Vizguerra's arrest last month "a plain abuse of power." "This is not immigration enforcement intended to keep our country safe," Johnston said. "Jeanette Vizguerra is a mother of U.S. citizens. She works at Target. She's the founder of a local nonprofit." Echoing the voices of many other critics of Mr. Trump's immigration policy and deportation practices, Johnston said the administration's arrest of Vizguerra flies in the face of its stated goal of prioritizing violent criminals. "This is the great lie of the Trump Administration. This is not about safety. This is about political theater and political retribution," he continued. "This doesn't make this country safer. It makes this country lawless, which is the most unsafe thing any president can do." Bennet, one of Colorado's two Democratic senators who recently announced a run for governor, also called for Vizguerra's release. "Jeanette Vizguerra is a mother and pillar in her community. I am deeply concerned about ICE's actions to detain her without any due process, like a deportation order," he tweeted last month. "ICE should ensure Jeanette has legal counsel and immediately release her." The day after Vizguerra was arrested, a number of protesters gathered outside the Aurora ICE Processing Center, holding signs that read "FREE JEANETTE." A small group protested after activist Jeanette Vizguerra was reportedly detained by ICE and taken to the GEO Aurora ICE Processing Center in Aurora on March 18, 2025. RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images "In a way, I would say I feel very angered and sad but very prepared as well," Vizguerra's daughter Luna Baez told CBS Colorado. "I'm just considering how long her case has been active for. (It's) something we've had to plan for... for years." Last week, Vizguerra's legal team filed an amended legal claim challenging ICE's detention of her and alleging due process violations. "This isn't just a technical problem -- it's a constitutional one," her lead attorney Laura Lichter said when she filed that claim. "Jeanette was arrested without legal basis, the government repeatedly violated its own rules, and leadership openly celebrated her detention as political retribution. That's not law enforcement. That's retaliation." Jeanette Vizguerra, immigrant rights activist, poses for a portrait at First Unitarian Society of Denver in Denver, Colorado on Jan. 26, 2021. Hyoung Chang/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images Despite the claims of ICE and other Trump administration officials, Vizguerra's attorney and other supporters in the community maintain she's being targeted for her speech, not her immigration status. "Targeting someone for their voice and views is the kind of conduct we expect from authoritarian regimes -- not a constitutional democracy," Lichter said. "For years, Jeanette has fought for the rights of others," said Lichter. "Now we're fighting to defend hers."
