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.