A family friend of a 19-year-old college student detained by ICE after a routine traffic stop in Dalton, Georgia, told Newsweek that conditions inside Stewart Detention Center are a “nightmare.”
Ximena Arias-Cristobal, who has lived in the United States since she was 4, is being detained at Stewart.
“She said Stewart is a nightmare, it’s overcrowded, everyone is crying all the time,” Hannah Jones told Newsweek.
Why It Matters
President Donald Trump’s administration is moving forward with plans to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, fulfilling a key promise from his 2024 campaign. While Trump emphasized that the focus would be on people with serious criminal records, immigration authorities have detained numerous nonviolent undocumented immigrants.
The raids have sparked growing concerns about due process violations and racial profiling. The White House has defended the actions, saying that anyone residing in the U.S. without legal status is considered a “criminal.”
What To Know
Stewart Detention Center, which is about four hours from Dalton in Lumpkin, is one of the largest and most well-known immigration detention facilities in the U.S. It is operated by the private prison company CoreCivic.
A report from the ACLU, which previously condemned the facility for poor conditions and due process violations, says that at least 10 people died there between 2017 and 2024.
Newsweek has contacted CoreCivic for comment.
On Monday, police stopped Arias-Cristobal at the intersection of Walnut Avenue and Thornton Avenue after she made an improper right turn, ignoring a “no turn on red” sign.
Officers asked for her driver’s license, and she informed them she had an international license. Arias-Cristobal was taken into custody for driving without a valid license and allegedly not following traffic control signs.
Two weeks earlier, her father, Jose Francisco Arias-Tovar, was stopped in Tunnel Hill for allegedly driving 6 miles per hour over the speed limit. He is being held at the same ICE detention facility.
Jones, a family friend, said Arias-Cristobal has been a babysitter for her family for several years.
“Her dad is also in Stewart. He has said that there’s not enough blankets, that he has had to sleep on the floor. Stewart is terrible,” Jones said.
Now her family is speaking out to defend Ximena and call attention to what they describe as a cruel and unjust situation.
Her 12-year-old sister appealed for her release in an interview with Newsweek.
“They’re not criminals, and they’re good people who came here to make a living for themselves,” Aurora Arias-Cristobal said. “They came here for a better future, a bright future, and they came here to work and not to be criminals.
“And they’re not a danger. They just came like a lot of people went to work and get money.”
Arias-Cristobal’s parents relocated from Mexico City to the Dalton area in 2010, when she was still a young child.
The Department of Homeland Security told Newsweek in a statement: “The family will be able to return to Mexico together.”
According to her family, Arias-Cristobal was ineligible for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program because it was no longer accepting new applicants.
DACA recipients, often referred to as Dreamers, are people who were brought to the U.S. as children without legal authorization. The program shields them from ICE detention and deportation, though these protections can be rescinded by federal officials.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help cover legal expenses for Arias-Cristobal. It has raised $64,976 as of 10 a.m. EST on May 8.
Arias-Cristobal, who graduated from Dalton High School and competed in cross-country, is now a student at Dalton State College.
Dalton is a predominantly Republican area, but Jones noted that “everyone knows this is wrong.”
“Even conservatives think that this is wrong, like especially for these young adults that came over as children,” she said.
Republican state Representative Kacey Carpenter is urging an immigration judge to grant her release.
What People Are Saying
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Newsweek: “Arias Tovar, a 43-year-old illegal alien from Mexico, was arrested for speeding and driving without a license. Arias Tovar self-admitted that he is in the country illegally. His daughter, Ximena Arias Cristobal, a 19-year-old illegal alien from Mexico, was arrested on May 5, 2025, by the Dalton Police Department for failing to obey a traffic light and driving without a license. She admitted to illegally entering the United States and has no pending applications with USCIS.
“The family will be able to return to Mexico together. Mr. Tovar had ample opportunity to seek a legal pathway to citizenship. He chose not to. We are not ignoring the rule of law.
“Through the CBP Home App—the Trump Administration is giving parents illegally in the country a chance to take full control of their departure and self-deport, with the potential ability to return the legal, right way and come back to live the American dream.”
Family friend Hannah Jones told Newsweek: “We’re all on an emotional rollercoaster. We will get some good news and get some hope, and definitely, the community support has been very heartwarming, and we feel very grateful. But when the DHS statement last night, and we get back on severe anxiety, just anger, all the emotions.”
Georgia Republican state Representative Kacey Carpenter told NewsChannel 9: “The reality is, the conversation has always been that we need to get hard criminals out of the country.
“Unfortunately, the people that aren’t hard criminals are getting caught up in the wash. It seems like we are much better at catching people that are committing misdemeanors than people that are actually a danger to society.”
What Happens Next
The family said it will continue to fight for Arias-Cristobal’s release.
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