Chanting and carrying signs, about 200 UF students and community members marched from Turlington Plaza to Tigert Hall Wednesday afternoon to protest the University Police Department’s agreement to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Signed in April, the agreement, known as a 287(g), allows UPD to work with ICE on immigration enforcement. It was signed two weeks after the arrest of UF student Felipe Zapata Velásquez, who was detained by ICE over a traffic violation despite being in good standing with the university and having no prior criminal record.
More than 300 law enforcement agencies in the state have signed onto 287(g) agreements following Gov. Ron DeSantis’ call for “maximum compliance” with the program. That includes the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office and multiple college or university police departments.
After Zapata Velásquez returned to Colombia under a self-deportation agreement, the Young Democratic-Socialists of America chapter at UF held a protest in response.
UF YDSA is part of a nationwide campaign advocating for campuses to take action to support their immigrant communities. Locally, UF YDSA is collecting signatures on a petition urging UF to not comply with ICE, which has garnered more than 1,400 signatures as of Thursday morning.
Tanuja Chummar, a 21-year-old UF food science senior and UF YDSA member, said she believed UF did little to help Zapata Velásquez.
“We’re just going to keep escalating until hopefully they listen to us,” Chummar said.
Chummar's parents are both naturalized citizens, which she said has made her more sympathetic toward the struggles of people of color and international students.
Jackson Kalogiros-Pepper, a 19-year-old UF wildlife ecology and conservation sophomore, is a campaign officer for UF YDSA. He addressed the protestors and handled police relations during the protest.
Kalogiros-Pepper said he is speaking for people “that are scared to come up and speak.”
As a white man born in Florida, Kalogiros-Pepper said he’s not in danger when discussing these issues.
He said most of his friends growing up were either immigrants themselves or raised by immigrants — some undocumented.
“My entire life, I’ve just been worried for my friends around me,” Kalogiros-Pepper said. “When I realized that I could organize around these issues and actually do something … it just hit me … this is what I want to do.”
Julian Crout-McKoy, a 19-year-old UF mechanical engineering freshman, heard about the protest from a friend and agreed with its cause.
“The police and ICE should be separate,” Crout-McKoy said. “I fear that the police trying to step into that kind of shoe is not going to be a healthy thing.”
He believes UPD and ICE working together could cause a “conflict of interest.”
“They shouldn’t be out here making people feel more unsafe, especially people who might be illegal immigrants and might need that chance,” Crout-McKoy said.
Arly Hernandez, a 21-year-old UF health education senior, also attended the protest. She is a part of a Chispas, an immigrant advocacy group on campus.
Hernandez said immigration is a topic that is very close to home for her. Growing up, she noticed some of her family members more easily entering the country because of their nationality, she said.
“From a young age, I always knew that it was never an issue of immigration. It was a broader thing. It was more discrimination and hate,” Hernandez said.
As a demonstration against YDSA’s protest, Angelina Albrecht, a 19-year-old UF philosophy sophomore, stood on Turlington Plaza offering Sparkling Ice to passersby — a deliberate pun. Albrecht said she supports ICE and feels people who don’t go through the citizenship process are “cheating the system.”
“I know how hard it is as a third-generation American; my family is from Sicily. It is such a long and grueling process to become a legal citizen,” Albrecht said.
Albrecht said she is not familiar with the 287(g) agreement, though she agrees with UF YDSA that UF should offer more legal support to immigrant and international students.
Other peaceful dissenters also looked over the event, although no counter protests broke out. George Feliciano spends most of his days at Turlington inviting students to the North Central Baptist Church and discussions about the Gospel. He watched students begin to gather before moving to a different part of Turlington.
He formed a relationship with UF YDSA from tabling nearby by himself.
“I support tabling, and some causes I agree with, and some I don’t, but I still think we should all support each other tabling,” Feliciano said. “If I’m not in agreement with them, I still want them to be able to have a table. This is a freedom zone.”
Julianna Bendeck is a contributing writer for The Alligator. Contact her at jbendeck@ufl.edu.
Julianna Bendeck is a contributing writer for The Alligator.
