A 19-year-old college student in Georgia, who was detained by immigration authorities after police pulled over the wrong car in a traffic stop, was granted bond on Wednesday.
Ximena Arias-Cristobal was held in a detention center under the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in western Georgia while her lawyer and family fought for her release.
She was detained after she was pulled over by the Dalton Police Department on May 5 and accused of making an improper turn and driving without a proper license. A week later, all charges against her were dropped after the department said police had pulled over the wrong car.
But ICE kept Arias-Cristobal in detention because the agency determined she was in the United States illegally. Arias-Cristobal was born in Mexico but has lived in the United States since she was 4 years old. The Dalton State Community College student did not qualify for protections under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) established in 2012 because she was brought to the U.S. after new applications were stopped, following lawsuits by Republican states trying to end the program.
She now faces deportation proceedings.
On Wednesday, Arias-Cristobal was granted the minimal amount of bond possible under the law, $1,500, her lawyer Dustin Baxter said. The government did not appeal the judge’s bond order, according to Baxter.
“The judge had reviewed Ximena’s case in detail and determined that Ximena is in fact not a flight risk or a danger to the community in the least,” he said in a statement. “The family will pay the bond ASAP and Ximena will be home with her family tomorrow afternoon at the latest.”
Arias-Cristobal was being held at the ICE Stewart Detention Center in rural Lumpkin, Georgia, about three and a half hours from where she lives.
Her father, José Arias Tovar, had been held in the same detention center after he was pulled over in a separate traffic stop a couple of weeks earlier.
He was released on bond last week and told NBC News knowing he was released while his daughter remained in detention was “the most difficult situation in my life.”
“I can say, my body walks away, but my heart stays there. It’s very sad,” he said in Spanish.
Arias Tovar said his daughter is a great person and a “a strong worker, very good student. I can see a good future for her here in the United States.”
“I know a lot of people think bad things about us because we broke some immigration laws. I understand that. But when we come here, we fall in love. We love this country,” he said. “We are ready to build America together. We’re just looking for one chance to stay here with my family, because we are good workers. We are not criminals.”
Ndaihita Cristobal, the mother of Arias-Cristobal, said she hasn’t been sleeping well since her husband and daughter were detained by immigration authorities.
“I was crying because in my house I felt a very, very strong loneliness, a sadness,” she told NBC News in Spanish.
“Every morning we would have breakfast together. But she’s no longer with me,” she said.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement Wednesday that the facts of the case remain unchanged.
“Both father and daughter were in this country illegally,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “The United States is offering aliens like this father and daughter $1,000 apiece and a free flight to self-deport now. We encourage every person here illegally to take advantage of this offer and reserve the chance to come back to the U.S. the right legal way to live the American dream. If not, you will be arrested and deported without a chance to return.”
