DALTON, Ga. — UPDATE:

After a Dalton college student was taken into custody by ICE, the Department of Homeland Security posted on X saying her and her family will return to Mexico together.

DHS says...

"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."

Arias-Cristobal has an immigration hearing on June 11th.

EARLIER:

Since we first brought you the story of a Dalton college student who is now in the custody of ICE and faces deportation, many viewers have asked, "why didn't she take the proper path to citizenship?"

The answer, we learned from an immigration and a state lawmaker advocating on her behalf, is because she didn't have one.

As we first reported Wednesday, Ximena Arias-Cristobal was stopped by police in Dalton on after she turned right on a red light, in front of a 'no turn on red' sign.

The police report says she told officers she only had an international driver's license, and not one from the U.S.

Arias-Cristobal has since been placed in custody of the federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and is now being held at a detention center in southwest Georgia.

Her mother told us both she and her father came to the U.S. illegally when she was 4. Two of her younger sisters were born here, and are American citizens.

Arias-Cristobal was not eligible to register in the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program, her family says, because it ended before she became eligible at age 16.

Watch our full interview with her mother:

Read more: From traffic stop to ICE custody: Georgia student now in limbo, family wants answers

Rep. Kasey Carpenter (R) represents Dalton in the Georgia State Capitol. He says 54 percent of his district's population is Hispanic, and he says he gets "6 or 7 calls a week" from constituents, either who find themselves in the same situation as Arios-Cristobal, or who are worried about sharing her fate.

Rep. Carpenter wrote a letter to the judge on Arios-Cristobal's behalf, calling her an asset to the community. He told us on Thursday

She is not a danger to the community,' he said. 'You know, she's been here for 15 years. Never been in trouble, good student, good athlete, etc, etc. I understand that we're deporting people, but can we focus on people that are trying to be a danger to society, and not people that are here through no fault of their own, that are an asset to the community, that are providing opportunities moving forward for community, for the state.

The only possible path to citizenship for Arias-Cristobal is if she marries a U.S. citizen, making her eligible for a green card, Rep. Carpenter told us.

It's impossible. I mean, that's that's the argument that you hear all the time from people on the other side is, well, they've been here 15 years. Why haven't they become a citizen? Because it's impossible. There is not a pathway for someone that is in America right now towards citizenship, unless they get married or they have a child, and the child grows up and the child's 18, then they they can petition for their parents. But as far as an individual that's between the ages of four and 25 there's, there's no pathway.

Arios-Cristobal's attorney, Charles Kuck, whom we spoke with on Thursday, shares Rep. Carpenter's view.

When you grew up here without papers, and you enter the way she did, which was through her parents, there's no way to get papers. You can't get legal. It's not like you can walk to the post office and fill out a form and get legal. Our country has extraordinarily strict laws, and they apply even to 19-year-olds.

Kuck says this is a direct result of the Trump administration's recent crackdown on those who are in this country but lack citizenship.

In any other administration, she would not have been picked up,' Kuck said. 'She would have just been given a notice to go to immigration court and go through the immigration court proceedings, but this administration has a zero release policy, so they release no one, even somebody as good and nice as Jemina and clean as Jimena. So now we fight to get her out and then see what we can do from there.

A GoFundMe page has been set up to secure legal representation for Arias-Cristobal. As of Thursday afternoon, it had raised more than $55,000.

Arias-Cristobal's next court date is scheduled for June 11th.

Depend on us to keep you posted on her case.