A college student in Georgia is facing deportation after it was discovered that she and her family have been living in the US illegally for around 15 years after she ran a red light.
Ximena Arias-Cristobal, 19, was stopped by police after she did not adhere to a sign that said, "no right on red." Arias-Cristobal is a student attending Dalton State Community College in Georgia. She was also driving without a license but told police that she had an international license to drive, according to ABC 7.
When she was pulled over, the officer attempted to speak with the college student's mother as well as the car’s owner, but neither of them were able to speak English. When she was asked by police about her license, she said that she did not have it.
Arias-Cristobal was brought into the US illegally with her parents when she was four years old in 2010, where her family settled in the Dalton area after having previously lived in Mexico City. Arias-Cristobal was brought to the Whitfield County Jail, which works with ICE and immigration enforcement under the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s 287(G) program. She was then processed to be held at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin.
“This program operates based on a series of reviews and background checks completed only after an inmate is already arrested for an Offense under Georgia Law,” an operation guide for the jail said, the New York Post reported.
She was later confirmed not to be a US citizen. Her father, Jose Francisco Arias-Tovar, is also being held at the detention center. The father was arrested last month after he was pulled over for driving 19 mph over the limit and was discovered to be an illegal immigrant at the time.
Because she was brought in a year after the DACA program ended, Arias-Cristobal was not eligible for the program.
