Undocumented Georgia university student allowed to stay in U.S

Student Jessica Colotl says the decision is "like a big present"She is scheduled to graduate from Kennesaw State University next weekColotl has been facing possible deportation to Mexico since she was arrested last yearActivists on both sides of the immigration debate have used her case as a rallying point

Atlanta (CNN) -- U.S. immigration officials have decided that an undocumented college student apprehended by authorities after driving without a license can stay in the United States for another year, the student said.

Reached by phone as she rushed to class Tuesday evening, Kennesaw State University student Jessica Colotl said the decision was "like a big present."

Officials at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency could not be immediately reached for comment.

Colotl, who is scheduled to graduate next week with a degree in political science, became a lightning rod in the immigration debate last spring. Activists on both sides of the immigration debate said her case was a symbol of a broken system.

Colotl has been facing possible deportation to Mexico.

Her legal problems started in March 2010, when police stopped her car on the Kennesaw State campus and accused her of stopping the flow of traffic in a university parking lot.

Born in Mexico but living in the United States since she was 11, she could not produce a driver's license, so she handed over as identification an expired passport from Mexico.

She was arrested the next day and turned over to immigration officials.

She spent more than a month in the Etowah Detention Center in Alabama.

Friends came out in force and marched on campus in her defense. In May, she was released, and her deportation was deferred for a year, which will allow her to finish her studies.

But she was quickly arrested on a warrant for the Cobb County Sheriff's Office and released on $2,500 bail.

"I'm just trying to live the American dream and finish my education," she said at the time.

Cobb County participates in a federal program that allows jail officials to initiate deportation procedures for inmates believed to be in the country illegally.

Immigration officials last year allowed her to stay until she finished finish her studies after pleas from the community and the university's president.

CNN's Dan Gilgoff and Jessica Ravitz contributed to this report.

CNN

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