ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Just months before he expected to graduate from the University of Central Florida, Alexander Vallejos said everything he had worked toward was finally within reach.
The computer science student was on track to earn his degree in 2025 after years of balancing work, school and financial challenges.
“It felt like everything was right there in the palm of my hands,” Vallejos said.
But the future he envisioned changed abruptly after he was detained by immigration authorities following an arrest. Although the arrest charges were later dropped, Vallejos said an Immigration and Customs Enforcement hold remained in place, leading to nearly two months in detention.
Vallejos is a recipient of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, a federal program that provides temporary protection from deportation and work authorization for certain undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children.
“I spent some days there waiting for them to drop the charges, but then I still had that ICE hold on me,” Vallejos said.
The 26-year-old said he was first taken to a holding facility before being transferred to the Krome Detention Center in South Florida and later to a detention facility in Arizona.
Throughout the process, Vallejos said uncertainty became a constant part of daily life.
“Throughout this whole thing, there’s no communication. We don’t know what’s happening to us,” he said.
Vallejos described overcrowded conditions and limited access to basic necessities during his time in detention.
“We spent the whole night on the bus waiting to go inside the building. When we finally did, we sat in a small room. The 50 of us were in a small room with just one toilet,” he said.
According to Vallejos, the experience took a physical toll as well.
“I lost 30 pounds on just that month of everything,” he said.
He said one of the few things that kept him going was the opportunity to briefly hear the voices of loved ones.
“Towards the end, they did give us a two-minute phone call. That’s all I got, to just be able to hear my girlfriend at the time and my brother’s voice. And that’s kind of what gave me a lot of hope,” Vallejos said.
When he was released, Vallejos said his focus immediately returned to finishing his degree.
“The first thing I did was just grab my brother’s laptop and find out how am I going to finish school,” he said.
However, Vallejos said the circumstances he returned to were far different than the ones he left behind.
“I found out they took away in-state tuition. I lost my scholarship. I was dropped from all four classes. So everything changed immediately after that,” he said.
Without the financial assistance he previously relied on, Vallejos said each class now costs him roughly $3,000.
To help cover expenses and continue his education, his brother launched a GoFundMe campaign.
Vallejos said the support he has received from the community has allowed him to continue pursuing his degree, and he now expects to graduate in May 2027.
“The support means so much to finally coming out about the real struggle of how this is affecting me, what’s really happened,” Vallejos said. “The support I got is honestly the reason why I’m actually even able to continue.”
Now speaking publicly about his experience for the first time, Vallejos said he hopes sharing his story will help other DACA recipients and immigrants facing similar challenges.
“I can’t just sit there and not try to do something,” he said. “I really want to find what to do to help.”