A Georgia teenager, Ximena Arias Cristobal, who was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) following a local traffic stop where charges have since been dismissed, was granted bond on Wednesday. This decision will allow for her release from immigration detention, according to her mother and legal counsel.
Arias Cristobal, 19, who immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico at the age of four, has been in ICE custody since earlier this month. She was initially stopped by local police in Dalton, Georgia, for an alleged improper turn while driving. Subsequently, she was charged with driving without a license and making an improper turn, leading to her booking at the Dalton county jail. Due to an existing agreement between the jail and federal immigration authorities, ICE then took custody of Arias Cristobal, who is in the U.S. without legal status.
Since her detention, she has been held at the Stewart ICE detention facility in Lumpkin, Georgia. Her father, who was also taken into ICE custody in April following a separate traffic stop, was initially held at the same facility but was granted bond and released last week.
The case garnered significant attention from local community members, including the Republican lawmaker representing Dalton in the Georgia legislature, who voiced support for Arias Cristobal and advocated for her release, citing her long-time residency in the U.S. and lack of a criminal record. Public outcry intensified after Dalton authorities dismissed the traffic charges against Arias Cristobal, acknowledging that she had been mistakenly stopped by the arresting officer.
Dustin Baxter, Arias Cristobal’s immigration attorney, stated that an immigration judge granted his client a $1,500 bond on Wednesday, the minimum amount permissible under the law. “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,” Baxter said. He also noted that the Department of Homeland Security indicated they would not appeal the judge’s decision.
Baxter anticipates that Arias Cristobal will be reunited with her family by Thursday afternoon.
Despite her impending release from detention, Arias Cristobal still faces the possibility of deportation to Mexico. ICE has initiated deportation proceedings against her in immigration court. The Department of Homeland Security has previously asserted that both she and her father should face “consequences” for their unauthorized presence in the U.S.
Under the Biden administration’s policies, it would have been less likely for an undocumented immigrant like Arias Cristobal, who has no criminal history and arrived in the U.S. as a young child, to be targeted for arrest by ICE. However, the Trump administration’s broader immigration enforcement strategy has expanded the criteria for ICE arrests and deportations, diverging from the previous administration’s focus on serious criminals, national security threats, and recent border crossers.
While Arias Cristobal fits the profile of a “Dreamer” – an undocumented immigrant brought to the U.S. as a child – she did not meet the eligibility criteria for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, an Obama-era policy that has protected hundreds of thousands of young immigrants from deportation. DACA requires beneficiaries to have arrived in the U.S. before June 2007, while Arias Cristobal came to the country in 2010. Furthermore, the DACA program is currently closed to new applicants due to ongoing federal litigation.
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