Police body camera shows a University of Florida student being pulled over and questioned by officers in Gainesville before he was detained by immigration officials.
Felipe Zapata Velasquez, 27, was cited for illegal license plate/attached mobile home sticker, driving with a license suspended or revoked with knowledge, having an expired tag after he was arrested the night of March 28, records showed.
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WATCH HEREPolice bodycam released Tuesday showed the moments Zapata Velasquez was stopped by a police officer.
The officer asks Zapata Velasquez for his license and if he goes to school at the University of Florida.
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"I'm an international student," he tells the officer. "I just came from Colombia."
The officer runs his information and finds out Zapata Velasquez's license is suspended.
"What’s up with your license, man?" the officer asks. "Your license is suspended."
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Zapata Velasquez tells the officer he is in the middle of renewing his license as well as his student visa.
Officers then put him in handcuffs, telling him he is being arrested for driving with a suspended license.
"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.
Zapata Velasquez is a third-year undergrad student, majoring in Food and Resource Economics at the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at UF, university officials said.
Nuestra Tele Noticias, a TV station in Latin America, spoke to his mother, Claudia Velasquez, who said her son was forced to sign documents that allow his deportation.
In a statement Tuesday, Claudia Velasquez said her son had returned to Colombia.
"They pulled him over, told him his license was suspended. 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.
She said he had been in the process of renewing his F-1 student visa.
"They knew it was a mistake. It was an error, but that doesn’t make him a criminal," the mother said.
In a statement Wednesday, ICE officials said Zapata Velasquez was released to their custody on March 31 and transferred to Jacksonville before he was taken to Krome Detention Center in Miami-Dade.
"Felipe Zapata-Velasquez, 27, of Colombia, was admitted into the U.S. on Feb. 12, 2023, in Orlando, Florida, as a F-1 student to attend Sante Fe College. On Oct. 4, 2024, Zapata’s student status was terminated from the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System after failing to enroll," the ICE statement read. "The Alachua County Sheriff’s Office arrested Zapata for driving with a suspended license and the license plate attached to the car he was driving was not assigned to that car."
On April 6, ICE said they verified Zapata's voluntary departure to Colombia.
