SOUTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - Students at colleges across the country are protesting after other students and staff are detained over their legal status. The latest case involves a University of Florida student who chose to self-deport after a traffic stop led to him being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
The Trump administration is cracking down on immigration and expanding the reasons for deportation. One population that’s been extremely vulnerable to the stern measures is college students.
It’s a troubling trend across the country as colleges are reporting that many student vias are being revoked without reason or warning, prompting students to check their via status daily.
The friction between universities and the government is now finding its way to Florida as thousands of students at the University of Florida in Gainesville protested against ICE on Wednesday for deporting one of their peers.
27-year-old Felipe Zapata Velasquez, a third-year student at UF, was detained by police in late March during a traffic stop.
Velasquez told police his F-1 student visa had been terminated because of a lapse in enrollment from when he transferred from Santa Fe Community College in Gainesville to UF.
He was arrested for driving with a suspended license, taken by ICE agents, and then sent to Krome Detention Center in Miami, where people have complained about the “inhumane” conditions for detainees.
Just under a week ago, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava penned a letter to the Homeland Security secretary expressing her “deep worry about recent reports of overcrowding and dangerous conditions at the Krome Processing Center in Southwest Miami-Dade,” and asking for a tour of the facility.
Some of the “dangerous conditions” that have been reported by various news outlets from those detained inside the facility include “inadequate access to water and food, unsanitary confinement, medical neglect, and abuse such as prolonged shackling.”
At this time, there have been no updates as to when the mayor is scheduled to tour the facility. In a statement, officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement acknowledged the increase in populations at the center and said they’re “working on addressing the capacity issues.”
Velasquez ultimately chose to self-deport back to his home country, Colombia.
Nationwide, students are sharing a similar story of knowing a classmate or staff member who has or could be detained on immigration holds at any moment, without notice.
From the University of California in Berkeley on the West Coast to Carnegie Melon on the East, to the University of Chicago in the Midwest and everywhere in between—students are being stripped away from the opportunity to advance their education, many of which are being detained in the middle of an academic term.
“It is upsetting. It is sad that the students are having an American dream to study abroad and they are not able to do that anymore,” said one woman.
“I just want my life to go back to normal,” said one student. “I want to go back to school, finish school. I want to, you know, not have to worry about getting arrested and losing my cats and, you know, it’s the same stuff that everybody wants.”
“Not giving the public information is intentional, and honestly in my mind it adds to the horror,” said another.
Democratic lawmakers came down hard on the administration, saying the deportations are without due process.
“They want us to believe that they’re the patriots of free speech. But they’re the ones kidnapping and disappearing college students across this country that are just fighting for peace to ensure that innocent people don’t die,” said Rep. Maxwell Frost at a rally.
The Trump administration said visas need to be seen as a privilege and not a right.
“I just think it’s crazy to continue to provide visas so people can come here and advocate for policies that are in direct contradiction of our national interest,” said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
According to experts, under previous administrations, Velasquez would have been released and placed into deportation proceedings, but he never would have been sent to an immigration facility.
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