I hate to read something like this happening to someone and I know it happens to citizens too. But don't you think if she had been legal the system would have moved faster?
Maybe, but US citizens get railroaded by prosecutors too.
If she had been legal the possibility is that she would have been out on bail. The article doesn't state as to what that bail would have been.
It shouldn't matter to anyone that she is probably illegal. What should matter is that a confession was probably coerced and that the police did not seem to care whether or not they had the guilty person.