UF Blocks YDSA Activists from Delivering Demands Letter for Deported Colombian Student
Yesterday afternoon, at least 100 protesters led by the Young Democratic Socialists for America (YDSA) marched from Turlington Plaza to the University of Florida (UF) administration building in support of deported Colombian student Felipe Zapata Velásquez.
Body camera footage of Felipe Zapata Velásquez’s arrest (WLRN)
On March 28, Zapata Velásquez was arrested by Gainesville Police Department (GPD) officers Brandon Vidal and Tyler Allen for driving with an expired license and registration.
Zapata Velásquez had recently transferred from Santa Fe College to UF. He had a student visa but hadn’t yet filled out an I-20 form, which validates international students’ enrollment in the U.S.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) took Zapata Velásquez into custody a few days after his arrest.
UF confirmed that Zapata Velásquez was a student at UF but didn’t give further comment.
Chair of the YDSA UF chapter Steven Sikes told GnvInfo, “The most updated information is that he is in Columbia, according to his mother…. I don’t want to spread misinformation, but there’s a bit of confusion about what transpired, with UF saying one thing and ICE saying another. Our understanding is that UF failed to protect this student. If they had said he was a student in good standing, they couldn’t deport him…. ICE is claiming that everything was done properly. UF hasn’t made an official statement, so I don’t want to speak on behalf of them, but they are denying some of what ICE is saying…. [UF] should have been proactive about telling ICE he is a student in good standing. You don’t deport people over traffic tickets.”
UF Police Department (UFPD) Sergeant Gregory Castronover made contact with YDSA activists shortly before the protest began and handed out a list of rules.
Co-Chair of the YDSA National Committee Aron Ali-McCory gave a speech to protesters, saying, “This situation is still developing and twisting in horrible ways. While UF has confirmed Felipe is enrolled and a 3rd-year student at UF, his legal status remains deeply unclear at this time. After over a week of detention at the horrific Chrome Detention Center in Miami with no contact with his family, [he] was allegedly forced to sign a deportation document and deported to Colombia, where he is today…. ICE is claiming Felipe was not a UF student as a justification for deporting him, while [Admin] is reporting he was enrolled. This institutional dishonesty, either on the part of ICE or UF, and the confusion here are directly placing our immigrant community at risk…. In these same schemes, ICE is straight up abducting students who don’t agree with the Trump administration, such as Mahmoud Khalil of Columbia and Rumeysa Ozturk of Tufts University, both of whom spoke out peacefully against the genocide in Palestine. The Trump administration's regime of border walls builds off the brutal immigration policies of Democratic and Republican administrations alike.”
Ali-McCory led the protesters on a bike to the UF administration building, where YDSA leaders attempted to deliver a letter of demands to UF Interim President Kent Fuchs. The letter stated the following:
“President Fuchs,
We have rallied today to stand in solidarity with Felipe Zapata Velásquez and our immigrant and international student community.
The UF YDSA supports and stands behind all international and immigrant students currently facing unprecedented denial of rights and due process. In the world we are fighting for, no student would face abduction or detention in concentration camps for trivial offenses. We believe in the right to migration and the freedom to study without the threat of imprisonment and deportation at every step.
In light of the repression against undocumented and documented immigrant populations alike, the university must recommit to protecting its students from being at risk of targeting by ICE and other immigration enforcement agencies.
We call on the administration to:
1. Hire an immigration attorney for Student Legal Services, providing critical new access for international, undocumented, and documented immigrant students to receive help with their visa filings and changes in immigration status.
2. Provide institutional support for Felipe Zapata Velásquez, committing to transparency around this situation and facilitating his return to UF to complete his degree.”
Attached to the letter was a petition from the student body calling for UF to hire an immigration attorney. The petition shows 564 signatures, but a YDSA member said they received roughly 100 more since the paper was printed.
When Castronover previously met with protesters, he said they’d be permitted to deliver the petition with a police escort. However, protesters were barred from entering entirely upon their arrival at the administration building.
Castronover tells YDSA leaders they can deliver the petition with police escort (GnvInfo)
Protesters were met with a sign outside the administration building that said, “Please remember, protests are not permitted inside campus buildings. Anyone wishing to submit demands for the purpose of protesting is strongly encouraged to email them to freespeech@UFL.edu.”
The sign had a QR code that directs users to UF regulations on campus demonstrations.
Two unidentified officers took pictures of the protesters from inside the administration building. One of the officers was in plainclothes, while the other was in full UFPD uniform.
UF Chemistry Professor Martina Sumner offered to deliver the petition in the building, believing only students would not be allowed in. She and a few other faculty members tried to convince the officers to let them in, but they realized that anyone associated with the protest would be barred from entry.
Chemistry Professor Martina Sumner and other UF employees attempt to deliver the YDSA petition (GnvInfo)
A few moments later, the plainclothes officer walked out of the building and whispered something to Ali-McCory about the QR code. Protesters called him a fascist as he returned to the building.
Plainclothes officer says something about the QR code to YDSA Co-Chair Aron Ali-McCory (GnvInfo)
Protesters heard from co-presidents of Graduate Students United (GAU), Cassie Urbenz and Austin Britton.
Britton said, “This human rights violation that’s happening across the country is not something GAU is beholden to; it’s something we will not participate in, and it’s something that we’re going to do everything in our power to stop from happening.”
Urbenz said, “On Friday night we were notified of Felipe being detained by ICE. As of this morning, there are more students whose records are being deleted and who are at extreme risk of deportation. It’s not just him; more people will be taken. This is not something we are speculating; this is something that we know…. Make sure you know the people here. Make sure you build a coalition. There’s no point in being here and waving signs around, holding logos, and wearing T-shirts if we’re not talking to the people in our community, making sure we know where they are. I can tell you about all the great resources we have. I can tell you about how GAU is working diligently with our lawyers. But at the end of the day, they’re not following the law…. We need to know where our international students, communities, and departments are so that if anything happens, we are there physically to stop the situation from getting there in the first place.”
As the protest came to a close, Ali-McCory told activists, “UF, in their infinite wisdom, has decided they will not allow a single student into Tigert Hall to deliver their demands to the president’s office on the second floor. If you could guess what they’d provide as an alternative, it is this dumbass QR code. The first thing they do is remind you they don’t want to hear your voice. It is our job as activists not to fight nicely and to continue to show up for our communities in places like this with, hopefully, double, triple, or quadruple this amount of people—people who never usually show up to a protest because they realize the people who are most in danger of being deported and arrested over a traffic violation and handed over to ICE are not people they don’t know. They are our friends; they are people who sit next to you in our classes, our seminars, or maybe someone we teach or mentor…. We need to make sure we continue to show up so that the next time—because there will be a next time—we show up at Tigert Hall, Turlington, or the Plaza of the Americas in greater numbers that they can’t ignore.”
