A University of Florida student was reportedly detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs (ICE) and deported to Colombia after he was arrested for alleged traffic violations.
Felipe Zapata Velásquez, 27, was stopped by police in Gainesville, Fla., on March 28, and cited for numerous offences, including illegal licence plate/attached mobile home sticker, driving with a suspended or revoked licence and having an expired registration tag, according to NBC Miami, which secured bodycam footage from the police.
“I’m an international student,” Zapata Velásquez tells officers in the footage. “I just came from Colombia.”
The police officer then asks Zapata Velásquez for his licence and runs his information.
“What’s up with your licence, man?” the officer asks. “Your licence is suspended.”
Zapata Velásquez, a third-year undergraduate student majoring in food and resource economics, told officers that he had a valid F-1 student visa and he was in the middle of renewing his licence and student visa.
Officers put Zapata Velásquez in handcuffs and told him he was being arrested for driving with a suspended licence.
“You already got a citation for this before, this is now your second citation; however, now you’re gonna go to the courts for it,” the officer says.
His mother, Claudia Velásquez, told Colombian TV station Nuestra Tele Noticias that her son was given two options after he was taken into police custody: He could either wait in detention while the immigration court handled his case or he could sign his own deportation papers.
“They took him to the station, and at the station is where they started to do the process to pay his bond. Obviously, they knew they were gonna hold him. Once he was done with the whole process, ICE was waiting for him,” she said.
“We never thought we would experience something like this. It’s too much for him, and for us, to have no information,” she continued. “He’s a brilliant boy; he’s an athlete. We want him to be given the opportunity to finish his degree and return to Colombia. He has no other intentions.”
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In another statement to NBC Miami, his mother said, “At this time, Felipe is undergoing a physical and emotional recovery process, and we are prioritizing his well-being and overall health.”
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“I sincerely appreciate the interest, solidarity, and support that many have expressed regarding my son’s situation. When his situation is fully clarified, and if he deems it appropriate, Felipe will personally address any additional requests or communications.”
Students at the University of Florida planned a campus protest in support of Zapata Velásquez following his arrest.
“Right now, we’re seeing waves and waves of fear throughout the student body because people don’t know what’s going to get them placed in an ICE prison,” Dimitris Liveris, leader of the University of Florida Young Democratic Socialists of America, told NBC Miami.
The University of Florida Young Democratic Socialists, who organized the protest, released a statement on Zapata Velásquez’s arrest, saying, “Across the country, international students are being ruthlessly punished for statements and actions for which they would never face serious material consequences as citizens.”
“We believe in the right of migration and the freedom to study without the threat of imprisonment and deportation at every step.” the group added.
The student group attached a petition to demand the addition of immigration services to protect international students.
“The designation of ‘sanctuary city’ has also been recently forbidden by the state legislature, which would impose a $5,000 per day fine on Gainesville and its law enforcement agencies,” it continues.
“Recently, local police have taken extra steps to affirm their commitment to ICE, with Alachua Sheriffs’ Office and Gainesville Police Department making a 287(g) agreement which gives them the responsibility of ‘street-level immigration enforcement.'”
“All of these local developments have made the streets of Gainesville and the University of Florida far more dangerous for undocumented immigrants and international students,” the petition adds.
The group wants UF Student Government to hire an immigration lawyer for student legal services, “which would cost less than 1% of the budget available to UFSG.”
“This would provide critical new access for international, undocumented and documented immigrant students to receive help with their visa filings and changes in immigration status,” the petition adds.
The petition currently has 580 signatures of its goal of 1,500 as of Wednesday afternoon.
Florida politicians are speaking out about ICE following Zapata Velásquez’s arrest.
Rep. Maxwell Frost said that Zapata Velásquez was detained by ICE and taken to the Krome Detention Center in Miami-Dade and accused authorities of “kidnapping” the international student.
Maxwell said that Trump and ICE were “running a government-funded kidnapping program.”
“Felipe Zapata Velásquez is just the latest victim of Trump’s disgusting campaign against immigrants. What should have been a routine traffic stop resulted in a nightmare, as Felipe is now forced to live in the hell on Earth that is the Krome Detention Center while he awaits deportation orders,” Frost said.
“Showing up in unmarked vans, with plain clothes officers, they are kidnapping people off the streets and jailing them inside of detention centres without due process and with little cause.”
Florida Rep. Yvonne Hayes Hinson, a Democratic state senator who represents Gainesville, also spoke out about Zapata Velásquez’s arrest, saying, “It’s saddening to see a UF student detained by ICE for driving with an expired licence and registration tag and sent to Krome Detention Center.”
“To be detained for such an offense is outlandish and quite alarming,” she said to NBC affiliate WJHG-TV. “Though the department of state can revoke non-immigrant visas, including F-1 visas, for arrests for certain offences, such as driving under the influence, did registration and an expired licence fall under the scope of arrest and detainment?”
“Immigrants are under attack now more than ever. We must speak up and not allow this to continue without voicing outrage,” she added.
Zapata Velásquez is the latest in a string of immigration arrests involving college students.
Lawyers for Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student facing deportation for his role in pro-Palestinian campus protests, urged a federal judge on March 28 to move their client’s case out of the Jena detention center, describing his imprisonment there as a “Kafkaesque” ploy to chill free speech.
Also on March 28, lawyers for Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University, renewed a legal bid challenging her detention by immigration officials as she walked along a street in the Boston suburb of Somerville on March 25. Ozturk, 30, was moved to an ICE detention centre in remote Basile, La., before a federal judge ordered her to be kept in Massachusetts.
— With files from The Associated Press
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