A teenage illegal alien who was pulled over for a traffic violation in Georgia is now being held at the same ICE detention facility as her dad, who was busted for speeding weeks prior, according to reports.
On Monday, 19-year-old Ximena Arias-Cristobal was stopped for running a red light in the city of Dalton.
Arias-Cristobal, a student at Dalton State College, told police she had an international driver’s license, but could not produce it because her mother had confiscated it, WTVC reports.
While the teen was being processed on charges of driving without a valid license and failure to obey traffic control devices, authorities discovered she is a Mexican citizen living illegally in the U.S.
“I tried to call the owner of the vehicle to inform them the vehicle was going to be at this location. I was unable to reach them at first. Ximena was able to get the number from her mother. I had to the put the phone on speaker however both the mother and vehicle owner only spoke Spanish,” a Dalton Police Department officer stated in an arrest report.
Arias-Cristobal was taken to Stewart Detention Center, a private prison under contract with ICE to hold foreign nationals and illegal aliens.
Interestingly, the teen’s father, Jose Francisco Arias-Tovar, is also being held at Stewart Detention Center under similar circumstances.
Two weeks prior to his daughter’s arrest, Arias-Tovar was stopped for going 19 mph over the speed limit in Tunnel Hill.
It has since come to light that Arias-Cristobal and her parents moved to the U.S. in 2010 and have been living here illegally ever since.
Arias-Cristobal’s mother admitted her family “came here illegally,” WTVC reports, following an interview with the mother who used Ximena’s sister as a translator.
“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,” the sister claimed, despite the fact that Ximena was apparently just 4 years old when her parents left Mexico City for the U.S.
Despite being in the U.S. illegally, Arias-Tovar reportedly owns a construction company.
Arias-Cristobal “has babysat for my kids for years. We adore her,” according to Dalton resident Hannah Jones, who set up a GoFundMe for the teen that has already surpassed its goal.
Terry Olsen, an immigration attorney based in Tennessee, told WTVC that Ximena’s mother will likely be “‘arrested/detained within a month or so,” and that the whole family could be removed from the U.S.