University of Florida Senior Detained by ICE at Atlanta Airport After Job Interview as Stepfather Asks 'What More Do You Want?'

A University of Florida chemical engineering senior with a pending asylum application and no criminal record was detained by federal immigration agents at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport earlier this month as he waited for a flight home to Gainesville, according to his family. Juan Sanchez, 23, is being held at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, and his family is pleading for his release ahead of a bond hearing scheduled for Friday, Nov. 20.

"What more do you want?" his stepfather, identified in reports as Shawn, asked in an interview with FOX 5 Atlanta, which first reported the case in a story republished by FOX 13 Tampa Bay on Nov. 12. The case has become the latest flashpoint at UF, where students marched this month to demand that the university's police department end its own partnership with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

What happened at the airport

According to his stepfather, Sanchez was returning to Gainesville after a job interview with Nestle when agents approached him at his gate in Atlanta. FOX 5 Atlanta and a GoFundMe fundraiser started by the family describe the interview as taking place in Chicago, while a WCJB-TV report described him as traveling through Atlanta for the interview. His family has said the arrest took place on Nov. 3, WCJB reported.

His stepfather told FOX 5 Atlanta that the agents asked only whether he was Juan and for his last name, and then "handcuffed him." Sanchez was then taken to Stewart, a large immigration detention center in rural southwest Georgia, about 140 miles south of Atlanta.

ICE had not responded to requests for information about the reason for the arrest, FOX 5 Atlanta reported. No public statement from the agency or from the Department of Homeland Security explaining the detention had been reported as of Sunday.

His immigration history

According to his stepfather's account to FOX 5 Atlanta, Sanchez came to the United States in 2019 with his mother and sister on a tourist visa, which the family overstayed. He was 16 at the time and entered the asylum process through his mother's case. His stepfather said he has a pending asylum application and work authorization valid through 2030.

The Independent Florida Alligator, UF's student newspaper, identified him as Juan Diego Sanchez, a student from Ecuador, and identified his stepfather as Shawn Van Schoonhoven. Other outlets reported that friends and family call him "Juandi."

A pending asylum case and a work permit allow an applicant to remain and work in the United States while the case is decided, but the Trump administration has taken the position that neither confers lawful immigration status. That position has surfaced in other recent airport arrests of students. At San Francisco International Airport on Oct. 30, ICE detained a 23-year-old UC Berkeley student from Colombia who was also an asylum seeker; DHS said in that case that work authorization or a pending application does not confer legal status, according to Berkeleyside, and a federal judge later ordered her released after about 10 days in custody.

What his family is asking for

The family has said there is no guarantee Sanchez will be released at the Nov. 20 bond hearing before an immigration judge. A GoFundMe page was created to help cover the cost of attorneys and court proceedings, according to reports. His stepfather's argument, as he put it to FOX 5 Atlanta, is that Sanchez has done what was asked of him: he entered the asylum system as a minor, obtained work authorization, stayed out of trouble and was months from finishing an engineering degree at the state's flagship university.

Detention at Stewart can put a Florida student hundreds of miles from his school, his family and Florida-based attorneys. Bond hearings in immigration court are not criminal proceedings, and the judge weighs whether the detainee poses a flight risk or a danger to the community. In recent months, the administration has also argued in many cases that people who entered without being admitted are not eligible for bond at all, a position that has been litigated in federal courts around the country.

The reaction at UF

About 70 protesters marched from Tigert Hall, UF's main administration building, to the University of Florida Police Department's station to demand that the department revoke its 287(g) agreement with ICE, the Alligator reported. The agreements deputize local officers to carry out certain immigration enforcement functions, including questioning people about their immigration status.

Sanchez was not arrested by UF police. He was detained by federal agents at an airport in another state. But students have tied his case to a broader campaign against campus participation in immigration enforcement. UF's police department signed a 287(g) agreement in April 2025, shortly after another UF-area student, Felipe Zapata Velasquez, was handed over to ICE following a traffic arrest in Gainesville.

In that case, Zapata, a 27-year-old from Colombia, was arrested on the night of March 28, 2025, released to ICE custody on March 31 and taken to the Krome Service Processing Center in Miami-Dade County, NBC 6 South Florida reported. ICE said at the time that his student status had been terminated in October 2024 after he failed to enroll, and that it verified his voluntary departure to Colombia on April 6, 2025.

Florida's role in immigration enforcement

Florida has gone further than any other state in enlisting local and campus police in immigration enforcement. State law requires state agencies and county sheriff's offices to sign 287(g) agreements, and many city police departments have joined them, WUSF reported last month. Twelve Florida university campuses, including UF, agreed to cooperate with ICE, and Florida is the only state where university police departments partner in immigration enforcement, WLRN reported on Nov. 9.

The result has been a sharp rise in arrests. About 29,000 people had been arrested by ICE in Florida in 2026 through Aug. 6, the most recent date available from the Deportation Data Project, second only to Texas, according to WUSF. Arrests in the summer averaged more than 200 a day, nearly double the rate earlier in the year, and more than half of those detained had neither a criminal charge nor a conviction, the station reported.

Nationally, ICE reported 356,389 removals in fiscal year 2026 through July 11, already above the 319,980 removals that independent researcher Austin Kocher tallied for all of fiscal 2025, according to ABC News.

Why it matters for Florida families

Many students at Florida's public universities came to the United States as children and are now in some stage of the immigration system, from pending asylum claims to temporary protections. Cases like Sanchez's raise practical questions for those students and their families, including whether routine domestic air travel, a job interview or a campus traffic stop could lead to detention while their cases are pending.

For UF, the case lands in the middle of a debate that has been running on campus since the university signed its agreement. Student groups have staged repeated protests, including a January march that drew at least 400 people down West University Avenue, WLRN reported, while UF's administration has kept the agreement in place.

What's next

Sanchez's bond hearing is set for Friday, Nov. 20. If an immigration judge grants bond and the family can pay it, he could be released while his asylum case continues. If bond is denied, he would remain in detention at Stewart while his case proceeds, unless his attorneys win relief in federal court. The Florida Press will update this story as the case develops, including any statement from ICE explaining why he was detained.