Protestors condemn ICE for deporting University of Florida student
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (WCJB) - Protestors gathered at the University of Florida on Wednesday following the deportation of an international student.
Department of Homeland Security officials confirmed that Felipe Zapata-Velasquez, 27, of Colombia, was deported by ICE on Sunday.
Demonstrators held a protest at UF’s Turlington Plaza around noon on Wednesday. They say international students are afraid after Zapata Velasquez’s deportation.
“Having someone be deported over something as simple as literally just a fine, for having an expired license, that’s a pretty tremendous government overreach in my opinion. I’m hoping if we push back now we can have the opportunity to have a brighter future where we don’t have to worry about stuff like this,” says protestor Jonathan Barrows.
Gainesville Police Department officers first arrested Zapata-Velasquez in late March for driving with a suspended license and taken to the Alachua County Jail.
Immigration officials say Zapata-Velasquez entered the country in 2023 on an F-1 student visa to attend Santa Fe College. They say his visa was terminated on Oct. 4, 2024, after he failed to enroll.
His mother told NTN24, a Colombia news outlet, that he was attempting to update his visa information after enrolling at UF. University officials confirmed to TV20 that he was a student.
ICE agents took Zapata-Velasquez from Gainesville to the Krome Service Processing Center in Miami before his deportation.
Earlier this week, Governor Ron DeSantis defended immigration enforcement operations in the state. “Those arrests that have been made were proper, the laws I sign within this regard are constitutional. We are not taking the pedal off the gas one bit when it comes to enforcing federal immigration laws,” says DeSantis.
This week, Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem calling for an end to what they call “immoral mistreatment” of detained individuals.
Forty-eight House members signed on to the letter, all of whom were Democrats. TV20 reached out to Republican Rep. Kat Cammack of Gainesville for comment and she declined.
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