The Daily Populous Sunday May 25th, 2025 evening edition
Authored by cbsnews.com and submitted by OkEscape7558

College student detained by ICE following a mistaken traffic stop: "My life is here"

The Georgia police officer whose traffic arrest of a 19-year-old undocumented college student led to her detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has resigned from the department, a spokesperson for the city of Dalton confirmed to CBS News on Saturday.

City of Dalton spokesperson Bruce Frazier confirmed to CBS News that Dalton police Officer Leslie Allen O'Neal had resigned from the police department. He did not give any information on the reason behind O'Neal's resignation.

The resignation comes after Dalton police said the officer had mistakenly pulled over Ximena Arias Cristobal on May 5. He cited Arias-Cristobal for making an improper turn and driving without a license before booking her into the Whitfield County Jail in Dalton, where she was picked up by ICE officers.

After officials reviewed dashboard camera footage of the traffic stop, they found the vehicle that actually made the improper turn was similar to the truck Arias Cristobal was driving, and on May 12, they dismissed traffic charges against her.

"You ever been to jail?" the officer can be heard asking Arias Cristobal in the dashcam footage.

"Well, you're going," the officer said.

"I cannot go to jail. I have my finals next week. My family depends on this," Arias Cristobal said.

Police dashcam video shows a Dalton Police Department officer arresting 19-year-old Ximena Arias Cristobal on misdemeanor traffic charges on May 5, 2025, in Dalton, Georgia. Those charges were later dismissed. Dalton Police Department

Arias Cristobal, who came to the U.S. from Mexico when she was 4, had been in ICE custody since early May after the agency took custody of her from the Dalton county jail and transferred her to an ICE detention facility in Lumpkin.

ICE released her from detention on May 22 when an immigration judge granted her bond.

Her father — who was detained by ICE in April, also after a traffic stop — was being held in Lumpkin as well, but he was granted bond and released last week.

Both will continue to face deportation to Mexico, the Department of Homeland Security previously said. ICE started a deportation case against Arias Cristobal in immigration court.

DHS said Arias Cristobal and her father should face "consequences" for being in the U.S. illegally.

Kiki Intarasuwan Kiki Intarasuwan is a news editor for CBS News & Stations.

theSchmoopy on May 25th, 2025 at 00:15 UTC »

The cop writes in his resignation letter that it wasn’t a false arrest and the department didn’t protect him from “defamation” but the department says there was video? So which one is it? Is the cop just resigning because they didn’t “protect him” by lying for him?

Berry_Togard on May 25th, 2025 at 00:13 UTC »

Holy shit, he pulled over the wrong car and then proceeded to arrest her. What a stupid and awful human being. I hope he has the type of life he deserves.

waldo--pepper on May 25th, 2025 at 00:02 UTC »

> "DHS said Arias Cristobal and her father should face "consequences" for being in the U.S. illegally."

What should she have done as a three year old? Or a ten year old? Or an eighteen year old? She had no good option when her family moved her here as an infant. What was she supposed to do? Self deport as a minor! This is a VERY poor use of resources to go after people like this. This is stupid. This gives the whole nation a black eye for this type of "enforcement."