A brief traffic stop on a Colorado highway led to the immigration detention of a college student this month after local law enforcement shared information with federal authorities, not knowing it would be used for immigration purposes, according to an administrative investigation.
Caroline Dias Goncalves, 19, a student at the University of Utah, was driving on Interstate 70 outside Loma on June 5 when a Mesa County sheriff’s deputy pulled her over.
Body cam footage released by the sheriff’s office shows that an officer they identified as Investigator Alexander Zwinck claimed Dias Goncalves was driving too close to a semi-truck.
The stop lasted about 20 minutes and Zwinck released Dias Goncalves with a warning. Shortly after she exited the highway, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents stopped her, arrested her and took her to an immigration detention center.
“She has no criminal record and she was not shown a warrant,” her attorney, Jon Hyman, said in an email.
Online records show that Dias Goncalves remains in ICE custody at the Denver Contract Detention Facility.
ICE did not respond to a request for comment.
Dias Goncalves is one of nearly 2.5 million Dreamers living in the United States. The word “Dreamer” refers to undocumented young immigrants brought to the United States as children.
In response to questions from Zwinck during the traffic stop, Dias Goncalves said she was born in Brazil and has lived in Utah for 12 years, body cam footage shows.
Relatives of Dias Goncalves told The Salt Lake Tribune she arrived in the U.S. as a child with her family on a tourist visa, which they overstayed. Finding a way to remain in the country legally, Dias Goncalves applied for asylum. That case remains pending.
During the traffic stop, Zwinck reviewed her identification, vehicle records and asked Dias Goncalves about her plans for the weekend. Zwinck then told Dias Goncalves he would release her with “just a warning.” After that, he asked, “Where are you from? You have a bit of an accent.”
Dias Goncalves replied in her slightly Western accent, “I’m from Utah.” She also told Zwinck about attending the University of Utah and starting nursing school in the Spring. The officer sent her off telling her to “take it easy.”
An administrative investigation from the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office revealed Zwinck was part of a communication group that included local, state and federal law enforcement partners participating in “a multi-agency drug interdiction effort focusing on the highways throughout Western Colorado.”
Federal authorities began using the information collected in that communication group for immigration enforcement purposes, the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Monday evening outlining their administrative investigation. “Unfortunately, it resulted in the later contact between ICE and Miss Dias Goncalves.”
The Mesa County Sheriff’s Office claims it was “unaware that the communication group was used for anything other than drug interdiction efforts” and have since removed all members of their office from the group.
Colorado law restricts coordination between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities, but it does not fully prohibit it.
Dias Goncalves’ immigration detention mirrors that of fellow 19-year-old Dreamer Ximena Arias-Cristobal in Georgia.
Police in Dalton wrongly pulled Arias-Cristobal over last month, putting her on the radar of immigration authorities and making her susceptible to deportation.
Since her release from immigration detention, Arias-Cristobal has been speaking up about the growing risks Dreamers face as the Trump administration steps up the pace of deportations of immigrants who do not have criminal charges or convictions, despite Donald Trump’s campaign promises to prioritize deporting violent criminals.
Arias-Cristobal and Dias Goncalves are recipients of the highly regarded TheDream.US national scholarship, which helps undocumented youths with financial needs go to college.
Dias Goncalves said in a TheDream.US survey of scholars, “I want to succeed, have a family, make a change living in America.”
Gaby Pacheco, president of TheDream.US, told NBC News on Monday that scholars like Dias Goncalves are doing everything in their power “to regularize their status.”
“She has a pending case, which is the aggravating and terrible thing that we’re seeing,” Pacheco said, adding that the organization is in contact with Dias Goncalves’ family.
Polls and surveys have consistently found that most U.S. adults favor granting permanent legal status and a pathway to citizenship to Dreamers. Trump even said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” in December that he wanted to work with Democrats and Republicans on a plan “to do something about the Dreamers.”
Asked about possible plans for immigration protections for Dreamers, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told NBC News in a statement June 4, “The Trump Administration’s top priority is deporting criminal illegal aliens from the United States, of which there are many.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
