The Georgia college student who was mistakenly arrested and subsequently detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been granted bond.
Ximena Arias-Cristobal, 19, of Dalton, was taken into ICE custody after she was mistakenly stopped by police for a traffic violation she didn’t commit earlier this month, despite having lived in the US since the age of four.
On Wednesday, the Mexican-born student was granted a $1,500 bond during an immigration hearing – the lowest amount permitted by law, ABC News reported.
‘The government did not wish to appeal,’ Dustin Baxter, Arias-Cristobal’s attorney, said in a statement, as reported by the outlet.
‘The family will pay the bond ASAP and Ximena will be home with her family tomorrow afternoon at the latest,’ he added.
However, the Department of Homeland Security has stated that it remains committed to ordering the teenager to ‘self-deport’ back to Mexico, citing the absence of any pending applications with US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
‘Both father and daughter were in this country illegally and they have to face the consequences,’ DHS said in a statement to X last week.
In a new update, Ximena Arias-Cristobal (pictured), 19, of Dalton, Georgia, who was mistakenly arrested and subsequently detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), has been granted a $1,500 bond during an immigration hearing – the lowest amount permitted by law
Two weeks before the teen’s arrest, her father, Jose Francisco Arias-Tovar, was detained by ICE agents after being stopped by police for speeding and driving without a license. He was released from custody on bond last week (pictured: Arias-Cristobal and her father)
However, the Department of Homeland Security has stated that it remains committed to ordering the teenager to ‘self-deport’ back to Mexico , citing the absence of any pending applications with US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)
Last week, Attorney Terry Olsen warned that the teen’s mother may be next, stating that ‘it’s likely Arias-Cristobal’s mother will be “arrested or detained within a month or so”‘ (pictured: Arias-Cristobal and her parents)
Two weeks before the teen’s arrest, her father, Jose Francisco Arias-Tovar, was detained by ICE agents after being stopped by police for speeding and driving without a license. He was released from custody on bond last week.
‘The United States is offering aliens like this father and daughter $1,000 apiece and a free flight to self-deport now,’ the statement added.
‘We encourage every person here illegally to take advantage of this offer and reserve the chance to come back to the US the right legal way to live the American dream. If not, you will be arrested and deported without a chance to return.’
The next hearing has not yet been scheduled and, according to one of Arias-Cristobal’s attorneys, ‘would be remarkable if it is before mid-2026’, ABC reported.
Meanwhile, the teenage girl’s parents are overjoyed that their daughter will be home soon, even as they face an uncertain future staring them in the face.
‘I’m just really happy that my daughter is coming home,’ her mother told News 9. ‘I just want to hug her. 15 days without feeling her warmth, her skin and hear her voice, now I just need her home.’
Agreeing, her father added: ‘We’ll continue to finish the transition so we can be in the country and continue working hard. She’s studying at her college and working hard to come out ahead’.
Arias-Cristobal was living the life of a typical teenager just a month ago – studying at Dalton State College, taking on babysitting jobs and running cross country.
The next hearing has not yet been scheduled and, according to one of Arias-Cristobal’s attorneys, ‘would be remarkable if it is before mid-2026’
Her father, Arias-Tovas (pictured), was also being detained at the same facility after his own arrest by ICE during a separate traffic stop in Tunnel Hill last month, though he has since returned home after being bonded out
On May 5, the college student’s life took a dramatic turn when her dark gray truck was mistaken for a black pickup that had turned right on a red light located in front of a sign reading ‘no turn on red’
On May 5, however, her life took a dramatic turn when her dark gray truck was mistaken for a black pickup that had turned right on a red light located in front of a sign reading ‘no turn on red’.
After being pulled over, Arias-Cristobal told the officer she had an international driver’s license, but did not have it with her at the time.
Online jail records showed that she was initially arrested and booked into the Whitfield County Jail for driving without a valid license and for failing to obey traffic control devices.
During her booking at the jail, Arias-Cristobal was asked about her immigration status – a routine part of intake at Whitfield County that often leads to ICE referrals.
However, the charges were ultimately dropped after dashcam footage revealed that the officer had pulled over the wrong vehicle.
The Dalton Police Department and city prosecutor said that the car that made the illegal turn resembled the truck Arias-Cristobal was driving.
Despite the mistake, the incident triggered her transfer to ICE custody, where she was shackled at the wrists and ankles and taken to the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia. She has remained there ever since her detainment.
Her father, Arias-Tovas, was also being detained at the same facility after his own arrest by ICE during a separate traffic stop in Tunnel Hill last month, though he has since returned home after being bonded out.
Last week, Attorney Terry Olsen warned that the teen’s mother may be next, stating that ‘it’s likely Arias-Cristobal’s mother will be “arrested or detained within a month or so”‘.
The college student came to the US from Mexico City as a four-year-old toddler in 2010, where her family settled in the Dalton area.
Arias-Cristobal had previously attempted to apply for DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) after arriving in the country, but the program had ended a year before they crossed the border.
Arias-Cristobal told the officer she had an international driver’s license, but did not have it with her at the time, resulting in her arrest and transfer to the Whitfield County Jail for driving without a valid license and for failing to obey traffic control devices
The charges were ultimately dropped after dashcam footage revealed that the officer had pulled over the wrong vehicle, but she was still shackled at the wrists and ankles by ICE and taken to the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia
Dustin Baxter, Arias-Cristobal’s attorney, said that ‘the family will pay the bond ASAP and Ximena will be home with her family tomorrow afternoon at the latest’ (pictured: Arias-Cristobal and her father)
DACA allowed undocumented children brought to the US to apply for deportation deferral every two years. The program has been closed to new applicants for several years.
The 19-year-old girl had been working for years as a babysitter for a woman named Hannah Jones and her family, who described her as the ‘most precious human’, while also adding that they believed her international license allowed her to drive legally, KATV News reported.
Arias-Cristobal’s younger sister spoke emotionally about the family’s journey, and said: ‘They came in with big dreams because they wanted a big future for my older sister. And, you know, my sister goes to college, and she was an honor student since middle school.’
‘And she runs. She loves to run. It’s her passion, and the only reason they came is to follow my sister’s dreams,’ she added.
Their mother, speaking through the younger daughter, said: ‘My dad has his own company, and they called a lawyer to see if they could get a job permit or a visa, and they said that they hadn’t hit that status to get one yet.’
Georgia State Representative Kacey Carpenter also weighed in, writing a letter on the teen’s behalf: ‘The reality is, the conversation has always been that we need to get hard criminals out of the country.
‘Unfortunately, the people that aren’t hard criminal are getting caught up in the wash. It seems like we are much better at catching people that [are] committing misdemeanors than people that are actually a danger to society.’
