Standout Suffolk County Community College Student Detained by ICE for Deportation to Columbia
Sara Lizeth Lopez Garcia, a standout student at Long Island's Suffolk County Community College (SCCC), was detained this week by Immigration and Customs Enforcements (ICE) agents and sent to Louisiana for imprisonment in a detention facility pending deportation, sparking outrage among her local community.
Garcia is a Columbian national who was in the process of obtaining her green card; she also had plans to get married in August, but her arrest - she claims she has committed no crimes - has torn her plans asunder, amid an increase of the Trump Administration's effort to deport migrants in the United States.
Garcia was taken from her home in Mastic along with her mother, by ICE agents who initially claimed that they were there looking for a different individual. However, according to her fiancé, Santiago Ruiz Castilla, Garcia and her mother were detained nonetheless.
Originally coming to the U.S. illegally at the age 15, Garcia was granted special juvenile immigration status and was the process of obtaining her permanent residency.
According to SCCC Faculty Association President Dante Morelli, Garcia is a 3.9 GPA honors student, a member of the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, a tour guide, and a club president and volunteer.
Her detainment at the hands of ICE had taken place just one day before the schools' commencement, which she had planeed to attend to cheer on her friends who were graduating.