Hearing for immigrant KSU student delayed

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By Rhonda Cook

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The planned arraignment of the Kennesaw State University student who became the face of the debate over illegal immigration was delayed because her attorney is out of town.

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Hyosub Shin, hshin@ajc.com Jessica Colotl

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Jessica Colotl was to have appeared before a Cobb State Court Judge Friday morning to enter a plea on two traffic citations. The schedule for filings and a trial also would have been set.

Cobb Solicitor Barry Morgan told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he would ask Judge Kathryn Tanksley to reschedule the hearing for two weeks out.

Colotl has asked for a jury trial so the arraignment is another step in the court process leading to trial.

The 21-year-old native of Mexico was arrested on two traffic violations in late March and she quickly became the example both pro-immigrant groups and opponents of illegal immigration used as a model of what's wrong with the nation's immigration system .

Eventually, her case was the impetus for a state university system policy change because she was attending KSU as a Georgia resident. Her name also has been injected into gubernatorial campaigns.

The controversy started after a Kennesaw State police officer stopped Colotl on March 29 for allegedly impeding traffic on campus, an offense that carries a $111 fine. She also was ticketed for driving without a license, which usually means a maximum punishment of two days in jail and a $700 fine.

The officer took her to jail where Cobb deputies turned her over to federal immigration agents. She was taken to an Alabama detention center but released on May 1 so she could finish her last year in school.

But Cobb Sheriff Neil Warren had her arrested days later on a felony charge of making a false statement for allegedly giving deputies an incorrect address when she was booked into the jail.

Colotl's criminal attorney said she gave jailers the Duluth address because that was on her motor vehicle insurance and car registration paperwork and she was still receiving mail there. She conceded she had not lived there since November 2009, however.

Her immigration status is unchanged, according to her immigration attorney, Charles Kuck.

“Nothing is scheduled until next year,” Kuck told the AJC.

Colotl's parents brought her to the United States when she was a child. She attended Georgia public schools and graduated from Lakeside High School in DeKalb County in 2006 with a 3.8 grade point average. She was accepted to KSU in 2006 as an in-state student, which was in keeping with the policy of the Board of Regents at the time. The following year, the rules were changed so that undocumented students could no longer receive in-state tuition, which costs about a quarter of out-of-state tuition.

Colotl was still paying in-state tuition up until her March arrest.