Utah student arrested in Colorado is released, describes ‘nightmare’ ICE detention
A -year-old University of Utah pupil who was arrested by federal immigration officers in Colorado earlier this month was issued from federal custody Friday according to a national advocacy group Caroline Dias Goncalves spent more than two weeks in immigration custody after she was arrested in Grand Junction on June In a report Monday she called the days she was confined to an Aurora detention center as the hardest of my life A Mesa County Sheriff s deputy pulled Dias Goncalves over for a traffic stop on Interstate near Fruita on June because she was following a semitrailer too closely The deputy let Dias Goncalves go with a warning but only after asking about her accent and discovering she was born in Brazil He then shared information about her in a Signal group chat between local and federal law enforcement The group chat was created as part of a regional drug interdiction effort but federal executives in the chat used the information the deputy shared to target Dias Goncalves for immigration enforcement She was stopped again in Grand Junction a meager miles down the road and arrested by federal immigration agents according to the sheriff s office which later pulled its deputies from the chat Dias Goncalves immigrated to the United States when she was and her family overstayed a tourist visa according to reporting from the Salt Lake Tribune which also revealed the family has a pending asylum application In a report from TheDream US an organization that gives scholarships and ongoing encouragement to undocumented immigrant students who don t qualify for federal financial aid Dias Goncalves called her detention a nightmare She received a scholarship from TheDream US to attend the University of Utah and the organization has continued to help her after her arrest In detention we were given soggy wet food even the bread would come wet she disclosed in the message We were kept on confusing schedules And the moment they realized I spoke English I saw a change Suddenly I was treated better than others who didn t speak English That broke my heart Because no one deserves to be treated like that Not in a country that I ve called home since I was years old and is all I ve ever known Her attorney Jon Hyman did not without delay return a request for comment Monday In a previous report he stated Dias Goncalves arrest was the development of improper coordination between local law enforcement and ICE Related Articles Utah college pupil arrested by ICE in Grand Junction granted bail Feds used group chat with Colorado sheriff to target Utah aspirant for immigration arrest administrators say Colorado law enforcement have limited interaction with ICE Could that change under Trump s mass deportations Feds detain immigrant family at Denver courthouse amid new Trump strategy Colorado law prohibits local law enforcement officers from carrying out civil immigration enforcement and largely blocks local police agencies from working with U S Immigration and Customs Enforcement A spokeswoman for the Mesa County Sheriff s office revealed deputies did not know the information shared in the Signal group chat was being used for immigration enforcement until Dias Goncalves arrest and that the agency left the chat after discovering the information shared there was being used in a manner contradictory to Colorado law Dias Goncalves revealed she plans to move on with her life now that she has been issued I m going to try to move forward now to focus on work on school and on healing she noted in the announcement But I won t forget this And I hope others won t either Immigrants like me we re not asking for anything special Just a fair chance to adjust our status to feel safe and to keep building the lives we ve worked so hard for in the country we call home Get more Colorado news by signing up for our daily Your Morning Dozen email newsletter
