An international student at the University of Florida from Colombia, who renewed her student visa, was arrested in stopping the movement and was conducted by immigration agents in South Florida, his family says.
A police officer at Gainesvil stopped 27 -year -old Felipe Sapata Velazquez on March 28, driving near the UF football stadium and ticking him, as his sedan registration expired in July 2024 and his driver’s license was expired in 2023, according to court records.
Velazquez, a junior studying economy of food and resources, has lived in Florida for four years. Previously, it was canceled in December 2023 for registration and driving expired and expired and driving without a valid certificate and has never paid the fines for traffic, according to court records.
Democratic Congressman, reporter Maxwell Frost, whose area is in Central Florida, said Velazquez became the “most victim” in what he called the abduction of US immigration and customs implementation.
“Felipe Sapata Velazquez is just the most victim of Trump’s disgusting campaign against immigrants,” Frost says in a statement. “What was to be a routine stop of the movement has led to a nightmare, as Felipe is now forced to live in hell of the earth, which is the Center for Crom Retention as he expects deportment orders.”
Reporter Kat Kamak, R-Gainesville, whose area includes the university, was a strong supporter of President Trump’s deportation plans.
Velazquez was booked in Alachua’s prison after stopping traffic. Within days, Velazquez was removed from immigration and customs law enforcement, according to an interview that his mother Claudia Velazquez did with NTN24 in Colombia.
“We never thought we would experience anything like that,” she told The Outlet. “It is too much for him to have no information for us.”
The Sapata Velásquez family did not immediately return telephone messages or texts.
Velazquez was taken to Jacksonville by ice agents after his arrest, where his mother told him they gave him two options: go to prison and wait for the resolution of his case in immigration courts or sign his self -preservation and return to Colombia.
Velazquez was in the process of renewing his F-1 student visa when he was arrested, according to NTN24.
He chose to stay in the United States while his case was resolved. He was taken last week at the Krome North service processing center in Miami, one of the five ice detention centers in Florida, according to NTN24.
A judge scheduled the Velazquez Treaty in his criminal movement case on April 16 in Gainesville. It was not clear immediately whether he would be allowed to attend. The Judge’s Directive at Velazquez noted that “the court is required.”
At least 32 ice dwellings have been placed on people arrested in Alachua County since March 2022, including 12 in 2025 only.
Florida representative Yvonne Hinson, D-Gainesville, said the detention of Velazquez by the immigration authorities should not have happened due to a disorder of movement.
“Why not give a ticket but be detained for such a crime is alien and quite anxious,” she said in a statement. “Although the State Department may cancel non-immigrant visas, including F-1 visas for arrests for certain crimes, such as driving under the influence, registration and expired license fell under the scope of arrest and detention?”
Hinson said Immigrants in Florida are “attacked now more than ever”.
The head of the UF of the young democratic socialists of America said that immigrants like Velazquez are punished in ways that citizens are not.
“Throughout the country, international students are mercilessly punished for statements and actions that they would never face serious essential consequences as citizens,” the group said. “We believe in the right to migration and freedom to learn without the threat of imprisonment and deportation at every step.”
The student group applied a petition to hire an immigration lawyer from the University Legal Services Division, which had about 370 signatures. He also posted an emergency protest on Instagram calling for ICE from the campus in the UF and required the university to take action “to support Felipe and his family”.
Democratic legislators in southern Florida, including Mayor of Miami-Dadd Daniela Levine Kava and reporter Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., Have laid the internal security department to allow them to visit the Crom Center for the background of complaints.
– This story was produced by Fresh Take Florida, an information service of the College of Journalism and Communications of the University of Florida. The reporter can get to blunardini@ufl.eduS
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida University sent to the immigration arrest