(DALTON, Ga) — A Georgia teenager who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement after being mistakenly stopped for a traffic infraction she did not commit earlier this month was granted bond Wednesday, according to her attorney.
Ximena Arias-Cristobal, 19, was arrested on May 5 in Dalton, Georgia, when her dark gray truck was mistaken for a black pickup that made an illegal turn, authorities said. The local police department and prosecuting attorney dismissed charges against her related to the mistaken traffic stop, though she was detained by ICE agents for being in the country illegally.
The Department of Homeland Security said following her detainment that it is committed to ordering Arias-Cristobal to “self-deport” to Mexico and that she “admitted to illegally entering the United States and has no pending applications with USCIS.”
During a bond hearing on Wednesday, Arias-Cristobal was granted $1,500 bond, the minimum amount possible under the law, according to her attorney.
“The government did not wish to appeal. The family will pay the bond ASAP and Ximena will be home with her family tomorrow afternoon at the latest,” her attorney, Dustin Baxter, said in a statement.
The next hearing in the case has not been scheduled, another one of her attorneys, Charles Kuck, told ABC Chattanooga, Tennessee, affiliate WTVC, adding, “It would be remarkable if it is before mid-2026.”
Arias-Cristobal, a student at Dalton State College, was being held at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, ICE records show.
The teen came to the U.S. with her parents when she was 4 years old and is ineligible for relief from deportation through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which temporarily protects some migrants from deportation if they were brought to the country as children, an attorney for Arias-Cristobal told ABC News.
Arias-Cristobal was not eligible to register for the DACA program because it ended before she became eligible to apply at 16 years old.
Her father, Jose Francisco Arias-Tovar, was separately detained by police — and later ICE — two weeks before his daughter for speeding and driving without a license, according to DHS. Her father was released on bond from ICE custody last week, WTVC reported.
“Both father and daughter were in this country illegally and they have to face the consequences,” DHS said in a statement last week. “The United States is offering aliens like this father and daughter $1,000 apiece and a free flight to self-deport now. We encourage every person here illegally to take advantage of this offer and reserve the chance to come back to the U.S. the right legal way to live the American dream. If not, you will be arrested and deported without a chance to return.”
ABC News’ Nadine El-Bawab and Armando Garcia contributed to this report.
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