Georgia teen forgives officer who wrongly arrested her leading to ICE detention
A Georgia teen detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement after wrongfully being arrested said she forgives the police officer who mistakenly pulled her over for a traffic violation she did not commit.
"I think he needed to do what he needed to do. He knows why he did it and I think, as from my standpoint, I don't hold a grudge against him. As a Christian I think the Bible says forgive those who wrong you, and I forgive him," Ximena Arias-Cristobal said at a press conference on Tuesday.
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. Those citations were later dropped once officials realized there was a mix-up, Dalton Assistant Police Chief Chris Crossen said.
But, she was still detained by ICE after it was discovered she was an undocumented immigrant. She was released on bond last week.
Officer Leslie O’Neal has resigned from his position at the Dalton Police Department, the communications director for the City of Dalton, Georgia, confirmed to ABC News.
Arias-Cristobal said immigrants at the Stewart Detention Center, where she was held, are "treated like we’re the worst criminals ever" and acknowledged that others have also been treated unjustly.
"I know everything that I'm going through is something that's very unjust, and it's not only my case, but millions of people are going through this in the United States. At Stewart, I met a lot of people that are going through tougher situations than me, and I think they deserve justice because they are not criminals,” she said.
"There’s a lot of very sad cases in there, mine is just a speck of what you see and that’s the sad truth," she said.
Despite forgiving the officer for her arrest, she said he acted "very unprofessional with his words" and "unprofessional with how he treated me."
She said the incident has changed her world.
“It kind of flips your world. ... Before we lived in fear, now a lot more," she said.
"It’s making people feel a little bit more entitled. With everything going on in the government, people just feel like their feelings can be poured out, and because of that, we feel as if we're more like targets in our community, and we're scared to go out, and we don't feel as comfortable as we used to before," Arias-Cristobal said.
The Dalton State College student said her arrest has put her life on "pause."
She is choosing to continue her studies in fall 2025, but she said her faith in God and her family have kept her going.
“I know my parents came here with the dream to give me and my sisters a better future, and that's exactly what they achieved. Unfortunately, we are in the situation we are right now, but knowing that my parents moved from another country with nothing in their pockets and gave me the life they so much wanted for themselves keeps me going because they crossed a literal river with me to be able to give me the life I have,” she said.
Arias-Cristobal's lawyers said they’re looking into the possibility of applying for a U visa, which may be a pathway to legal status for Arias-Cristobal and her family stemming from the wrongful arrest, according to attorney Dustin Baxter.
The U visa is a special type of visa that is offered to some victims of abuse or crimes who help law enforcement with investigations.
"We have concerns based on a number of different things, how the arrest was carried out, what was put in the arrest report that obviously wasn't true, and some things that happened right after, resulting in his resignation about the legality of this stop and then arrest," Baxter said.
"She should never have been arrested and she should never have been taken to Stewart," he said.
