Arias-Cristobal speaks on experience in immigration custody

WASHINGTON (WDEF)- A Dalton teenager who could face deportation took part in a Senate judiciary hearing in Washington D.C.
Ximena Arias-Cristobal was arrested last month in an arrest that Dalton Police said should not have happened.

They said that an officer had mistakenly pulled over the wrong truck.

Because she was brought to the United States illegally at the age of four, she was placed into ICE custody in southern Georgia.

She was given a bond as she awaits her deportation hearing.

Arias-Cristobal says that she hopes her experience has been a wake up call.

“People from my community realized that this isn’t an immigration problem, but a human rights problem. There were a lot of conservatives who thought they were voting to get criminals out of the country and protect the United States and whenever they saw a 19 year old student, active in the community, was taken to a detention center, they quickly realized that it wasn’t the right thing to do,” she said.

Her attorney says her deportation hearing may not happen for up to two years due to a backlog in the system.