Dalton student who was detained addresses Senate Democrats

By Mason Edwards, Chattanooga Times Free Press

Ximena Arias-Cristobal, the Dalton teen who spent 2 1/2 weeks in an immigration detention facility after police pulled her over by mistake, spoke for around two minutes to U.S. Senate Democrats.

She started her Wednesday appearance with her now nationally known story, that of a college student, athlete and undocumented immigrant whose parents moved to the U.S. when she was 4. She said she dreams of becoming an American citizen, and had she been eligible for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program, she would have applied immediately.

"Since kindergarten, I've pledged allegiance to the flag of the United States," Arias-Cristobal told the Senate Democrats Spotlight Forum. "I am a human being. I am a Georgian. I am an American without papers."

On May 5, a traffic stop escalated into her arrest, jailing at the Whitfield County Jail and detention at Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia.

(READ MORE: Dalton police officer who city said mistakenly stopped immigrant resigns, citing 'widespread defamation)

"The conditions, the language used toward us, the lack of dignity and compassion — it felt more like punishment than due process," she said of the detention center. "We were treated not like individuals with rights, but like numbers in a system designed to break us."

She credited her attorney, Dustin Baxter, for getting her the minimum bond but said that the experience will live with her forever.

"My time there was short compared to others, but the emotional weight was unbearable," she said. "I witnessed women — mothers, daughters, sisters — suffer daily under cruel and unnecessary conditions."

Her return to Dalton was celebrated by friends, and her visit to the Capitol comes as she's remained fearful of exploring the community and being targeted by some in her community. The incident has changed the course of many lives, including the arresting officer, Leslie Allen O'Neal, who resigned, alleging that the city of Dalton kept quiet while he faced "widespread defamation" over the original traffic stop.