This spring, a 19-year-old university student named Ximena Arias-Cristobal was sent to an immigrant detention center in Dalton, Georgia, for an alleged traffic violation. The traffic charges were eventually dropped, but it was too late. Authorities in Dalton had already called Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under a federal program that turns police encounters into deportation pipelines.

With her final exams approaching and her family’s future depending on her academic success, Arias-Cristobal was detained in a privately run detention center notorious for inhumane conditions and severe rights violations .

Unfortunately, her story is not an isolated incident. It’s part of a broader reality across the country as local police departments become extensions of federal immigration

See Full Page