A University of Florida student who was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs after his arrest in Gainesville voluntarily returned to Colombia, officials with the agency said Wednesday.
A University of Florida student who was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after his arrest in Gainesville voluntarily returned to Colombia, officials with the agency said Wednesday.
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 in Gainesville the night of March 28, records showed.
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WATCH HEREPolice body camera footage showed the moments Zapata Velasquez was stopped by a police officer.
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"I'm an international student," he tells the officer. "I just came from Colombia."
Zapata Velasquez tells the officer he is in the middle of renewing his license as well as his student visa, but he was arrested for the suspended license.
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 Service Processing Center in Miami-Dade.
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On April 6, ICE said they verified Zapata's voluntary departure to Colombia.
"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."
UF officials said Zapata Velasquez is a third-year undergrad student, majoring in Food and Resource Economics at the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.
In a statement Tuesday, mother 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.
