Why Sara Lopez Garcia, SCCC student arrested by ICE, says she has agreed to be deported to Colombia

A Suffolk County Community College honors student arrested by ICE agents in May said Thursday she chose to be deported to Colombia rather than spend months fighting to stay in the United States, saying "I want my freedom."

Sara Lopez Garcia, 20, told Newsday in a telephone interview from the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile, Louisiana, where she has spent the last month, "I want to return to my life and keep studying."

"If it has to be in Colombia or it can be here" in the United States, she said. "I just want to get out of" jail.

"At this point, I just want to leave because I want my freedom," she said.

Professors at the college on Thursday reported a groundswell of support for her while SUNY Chancellor John King posted on X this week that her case "is heartbreaking."

"Sara is a standout student building a better life for herself and her family. Like so many SUNY students, she is using her education to better our community," he wrote.

Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-Bayport) said in a statement: "I am aware of the situation, and have been in contact with the White House and the Department of Homeland Security. We are continuing to gather information."

Lopez Garcia spends her days reading the Bible and other religious books to help her get through the ordeal, she said. Her mother, Viviana Garcia Gomez, is also detained in the processing center. Lopez Garcia has mixed feelings about her younger brother being left behind by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, since now the family is separated, but she is glad he can continue living here.

She agreed to be deported last month "because I know that will be the quickest option. Being here is really hard," she said. "At 20 years old, I don’t think I should waste my time like that."

One immigration lawyer told her she might have to wait six months or more in jail for her case to be resolved if she didn't agree to deportation, she said. 

Her arrest, part of President Donald Trump's escalating immigration crackdown throughout the country, has provoked shock and outrage at the college.

Lopez Garcia said she expects to be deported any day now. She was arrested May 21 at her basement apartment in Mastic.

She said she is still in shock, going from being a student leader at SCCC to finding herself in handcuffs after ICE agents showed up at 7 a.m. that morning looking for someone else.

When the agents started asking her questions, she answered, believing she was in no danger of deportation because she has special juvenile immigration status — a visa granted to some children after they enter the country illegally with their parents and who have been abandoned, abused or neglected by at least one parent. Lopez Garcia was 15 when she came here with her mother and brother.

"I got shocked and I didn’t remember all my rights because I would never expect that this could happen to me being a student" with legal status, she said. "It was very fast so I didn’t have the time" to recall what to do.

ICE apparently is no longer recognizing the protection against deportation for new juvenile visas and may be revoking it even for existing ones, immigration lawyers said. Advocates have counseled immigrants that they do not have to answer questions from immigration agents or open the door to their house.

Lopez Garcia is the first known SUNY student arrested by ICE as part of what Trump says will be the largest mass deportation campaign in U.S. history. Trump says agents are targeting mainly dangerous criminals. Lopez Garcia, however, has no criminal record or even a traffic ticket, as verified by her fiance, Santiago Ruiz Castilla, and a search of recent records.

She has a 3.9 GPA, was a peer mentor and was working on a school project for a nonprofit that helps women who are victims of domestic violence

ICE agents also arrested her mother but did not take her brother, apparently because he is a minor. He is now living with neighbors on Long Island, according to Lopez Garcia’s fiance.

The brother could return to Colombia but chose to remain here for at least several months to work and save for college, Ruiz Castillo said. He just graduated from William Floyd High School, which was also his sister's alma mater.

"I support him with his decision, but still it is very sad because our family is separated without any reason," Lopez Garcia said.

Dante Morelli, president of the college's Faculty Association, said he has received numerous messages of support for Lopez Garcia.

People "are upset and horrified by this," he said. Ideally, Lopez Garcia would be able to return to the Riverhead campus in the fall and graduate in December, he said, but that now seems unlikely.

An interior design major, Lopez Garcia said she had dreams of later attending the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. By agreeing to be deported, though, she hopes she can reapply to come to the United States.

"I try to do my best every day to make the time better. It’s really sad to be here," she said of her detention. "I try to do something different to avoid my reality."