Ximena Arias-Cristobal knows the risks that can come with driving as a person living in the U.S. without legal authorization, where a simple traffic stop could lead to being deported.
That fear materialized last month when she was pulled over by local police in Dalton, Georgia, for making an improper turn at a red light, but instead of a traffic ticket, the 19-year-old was detained at Stewart Detention Center for nearly three weeks, she said at a virtual event Tuesday.
“Even though my time there was short … the emotional weight is overwhelming,” Arias-Cristobal said during a panel conversation organized by advocacy groups opposing the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown on students without legal authorization and international students.
“This isn’t just an immigration issue, it’s a human rights issue,” Arias-Cristobal said.
She and her parents arrived in the United States without legal authorization from Mexico when Arias-Cristobal was 4 years old. Her father was in the car with her last month and was also detained at the Stewart Detention Center, she said. He has since been released.
“What affected me the most was the transfer itself, being shackled at the waist and ankles,” Arias-Cristobal said of being transferred by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to Stewart Detention Center.
Arias-Cristobal is eligible to apply for deportation protections under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, policy. DACA allows some people who were brought into the country as children without legal authorization to obtain a drivers license and work permits and remain in the country, under certain conditions.
But the agency that issues such protections, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, stopped accepting applications in 2021 as part of a court case from Republican state officials challenging DACA’s legality.
The case remains pending and is likely to head to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Arias-Cristobal now faces deportation to Mexico as she tries to complete her higher education at Dalton State College, where she is studying economics and finance.
Gaby Pacheco, president and CEO of advocacy group TheDream.US, said that cases like Arias-Cristobal’s are becoming more common under the second Trump administration and that “Dreamers are under attack.”
Pachecos’ group provides scholarships to young immigrants without legal status, including Arias-Cristobal, to pursue higher education.
She said that while DACA recipients have not been caught in deportations, “we have heard of people (being) held and questioned” by ICE agents.
“The level of cruelty, inhumanity and lawlessness that we’re seeing from the Department of Homeland Security… is completely alarming,” Pacheco said.
That type of immigration enforcement has impacted higher education, said Miriam Feldblum, the president of the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, which advocates for international students and students without proper legal authority to attend college.
The Department of Homeland Security informed Harvard University last month that it was revoking the Ivy League school’s ability to accept international students. A federal court has temporarily blocked the move while the case is pending.
“This will directly harm our enrollment at U.S. institutions,” she said of the Trump administration’s stance on limiting how many international students can attend higher education.
Feldblum said that because international students pay full tuition, those costs often subsidize scholarships for U.S. students.