Republican Georgia state Rep. Kacey Carpenter is asking for the release of a student taken into custody after being "wrongly pulled over" by police, a report said on Wednesday.
The Dalton Police Department pulled over Mexican-born 19-year-old Ximena Arias-Cristobal, The Daily Beast reported. Both the police and the prosecuting attorney of the City of Dalton have dismissed charges against her, yet the report explained she remains in Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, the police confirmed.
"The traffic stop video shows a black pickup truck passing in front of the [police] camera’s view traveling westbound," the department said on the Dalton government website after reviewing the police dash camera video.
"Once out of the camera’s view, the officer saw the truck make an illegal right hand turn north to travel north on Thornton Avenue. Right-hand turns on red are not permitted at this intersection. The officer then proceeds to attempt to pull out to stop the offending truck, but the officer had to wait behind another vehicle which stopped at the red light," the police account continued.
The eastbound traffic began moving forward after the light turned green, and a line of vehicles turned onto the same northbound Thornton Avenue.
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"Ximena Arias-Cristobal was driving a dark gray pickup truck in this line of cars," the police site said. "After the line of cars moved past, the DPD officer got a green light to turn north onto Thornton Avenue. The officer traveled north looking for the truck, and stopped Arias-Cristobal’s dark gray Dodge truck when he caught up to her near the intersection with Crawford Street. The audio recording of the traffic stop did not begin recording until after the officer’s initial contact with Ms. Arias-Cristobal."
“She is not a danger to the community,” Carpenter said in an open letter. “She’s been here for 15 years. Never been in trouble, good student, good athlete, etc, etc. I understand that we’re deporting people, but can we focus on people that are trying to be a danger to society, and not people that are here through no fault of their own, that are an asset to the community, that are providing opportunities moving forward for community, for the state."
The member of Congress who represents the district is also a Republican, but she's been less supportive.
“Ms. Cristobal was incredibly fortunate to grow up in a beautiful part of the world—Dalton, Georgia," Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) said in a statement. "While local Dalton officials dropped her charges, the facts remain: she was driving illegally without a license and has no legal basis to remain in the United States."
“I’m grateful the Trump Administration is upholding our nation’s immigration laws and keeping families together, it’s the right thing to do,” Greene added.
When she was pulled over, the college student told police officers "that she had an international driver’s license," instead of the Georgia state license.
“We certainly regret the circumstances that led us to where we are today," said Chris Crossen, the Dalton assistant chief of police.
The lawyer representing Arias-Cristobal said that she has been in the United States since she was 4 years old and is very active in the community.
“Ximena is one of many young, innocent people who have had the misfortune of being caught up in Trump’s cruel dragnet,” her attorney, Dustin Baxter, said in an interview with The Independent. “The fact that Ximena, like many others, has committed no crime for which they can be deported means nothing anymore."
The Daily Beast said that the new U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the Trump administration brought back a blanket "no release" policy, significantly decreasing the chances of Arias-Cristobal's release.
The International Legal and Business Services Group said in March that ICE's "no release" policy remains in place despite "a 2022 settlement that mandated ICE to hold individual case hearings to determine if detained individuals can be released."
Arias-Cristobal’s father, Jose Francisco Arias-Tovar, was also taken by ICE after he was pulled over for driving 19 miles over the speed limit.
The Department of Homeland Security posted on X that the family would be returned to Mexico together.