Mexican teenager ‘mistakenly’ detained by ICE released

Atlanta (USA) (EFE) – A Mexican teenager, who was detained by Immigration for a traffic violation she didn’t commit, will be reunited with her family in Georgia after a federal judge granted her bail on Wednesday, her lawyer confirmed to EFE.

Ximena Arias Cristóbal, a 19-year-old university student who arrived in the United States 15 years ago, is expected to be released in the coming hours from the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, southwest Georgia, after posting the $1,500 bail set by the immigration magistrate during a hearing held Wednesday.

“The judge reviewed Ximena’s case in detail and determined that, in fact, Ximena does not represent a flight risk or a danger to the community in the slightest,” her attorney Dustin Baxter told EFE.

The young woman fell into the hands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after allegedly committing a traffic violation in Dalton, the Georgia town where she lives with her family, for allegedly making an illegal turn and driving without a license.

A week after her arrest, on May 5, police acknowledged the mistake and exonerated her of the charges, but ICE refused to release her, arguing that she was undocumented.

“The Department of Homeland Security indicated that it will not appeal the judge’s decision. The family will post bail as soon as possible, and Ximena will be home with her family by tomorrow afternoon at the latest,” said the attorney for the young woman, who arrived in the United States when she was only four years old.

Dalton Police Department officials explained that upon reviewing the camera video from the patrol car that stopped Arias, they determined that the young woman’s car “appeared similar to the offending vehicle, but it was not the one that made the illegal turn.”

This error has sparked outrage in the Hispanic community of Dalton, a town in northwest Georgia known as the “Carpet Capital of the World” due to the number of carpet factories operating there, who rallied around the young woman’s family to secure her release.

The case also gained notoriety because Arias’s father, José Arias, was also detained by ICE after being arrested for a traffic violation. The Mexican immigrant was released last week from the same detention center where the young woman was being held after a judge granted him bail.

Those close to Arias’s family have raised more than $85,318 for their legal representation and, together with various groups, have organized several protests against what they considered an injustice.

According to Arias’s family, the teenager was unable to regularize her immigration status because she was unable to apply for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program because it stopped accepting new applications before she met the requirements.