ICE deported Sara Lopez Garcia, but Thursday she graduated from Suffolk County Community College

Exactly one year ago Thursday, as students were preparing for graduation day at Suffolk County Community College, immigration agents raided a house in Mastic and arrested an honors student from the college.

The detention of Sara Lopez Garcia as part of a national immigration crackdown provoked shock and outrage on the campus. It turned her life upside down, and weeks later led to her deportation to her native Colombia.

On Thursday, Lopez Garcia returned to campus — virtually. She was honored as one of six students selected to deliver speeches to hundreds of graduates, faculty and guests at the livestreamed ceremony.

In a video recording taped last week, she told the crowd at the college’s Brentwood campus that while she joined in celebrating their new degrees, including hers, the day was bittersweet as she was forced to watch from 2,500 miles away in South America.

"This day brings really difficult memories for me," she said. "Exactly one year ago, on this very same day, I was taken by ICE agents without reason.

"It was one of the moments of my life when I felt fear," she said. "I was so scared and everything was uncertain. I didn’t know what would happen to me, to my family, to my future, or even my education."

First known SUNY student arrested

Lopez Garcia, 21, was the first known SUNY student arrested as part of what President Donald Trump has pledged will be the largest mass deportation campaign in U.S. history.

For some, she became a symbol of the excesses of the crackdown, which Trump says is targeting dangerous criminals, although studies showed most of those arrested had no criminal record.

Some groups called Lopez Garcia exactly the kind of immigrant the United States should want.

"She is the perfect example of everything that’s wrong with mass deportation," said Jim Morgo, a former vice president of the board of trustees at Suffolk. "There’s no distinguishing the honor student from the rapist."

His comments were echoed by one student speaker at the ceremony, Micah Smith, who told the crowd that what happened to Lopez Garcia "is a tragedy. More than that, it is an injustice."

ICE did not respond to a request for comment.

Had special status

Lopez Garcia has said ICE agents told her they were looking for someone else who lived in another section of the house but arrested her anyway even though she had Special Immigrant Juvenile Status. That classification is granted to immigrant children abused, abandoned or neglected by a parent and typically leads to a green card.

Lopez Garcia was brought to the United States at age 15 by her mother. She arrived speaking no English and attended William Floyd High School.

At Suffolk, she earned a 3.9 GPA, served as a peer mentor and was working on a school project for a nonprofit that helps women who are victims of domestic violence. She has no criminal record.

But after weeks in an ICE jail in Louisiana, she gave up and agreed to be deported, saying, "I want my freedom." She was sent to Colombia in early August along with her mother, Viviana Garcia Gomez, who also was arrested on May 21.

Cynthia Eaton, an English professor at Suffolk who taught Lopez Garcia and helped oversee her work as a peer mentor, said she nominated her to be a speaker partly because she was a model of determination in the face of adversity.

"She is the epitome of perseverance," Eaton said. "I’ve always been so impressed by her. She is a good thinker. She’s a good learner. She’s a good person" who tried to help others in ICE jail by translating, for instance. "Everybody on our campus knew Sara’s smile. They all loved Sara. She was like a magnet, this personality, just upbeat, positive."

"The story of her perseverance and hardship, I felt it would be inspiring to others," Eaton said. Lopez Garcia’s deportation "breaks my heart. ... I don’t believe that ever should have happened."

'Stood by my side'

On Thursday, Lopez Garcia told the crowd that, despite her ordeal, "I was given something incredibly powerful ... the opportunity to truly see the hearts of the people who were around me.

"The support I received from the Suffolk community was something I will never forget. Professors, staff members, classmates and friends stood by my side during one of the darkest moments of my life."

The help "reminded me that compassion still exists, that community matters and that sometimes people can give you strength when you no longer have it yourself."

In a telephone interview from Colombia this week, Lopez Garcia told Newsday she had been working as an interior designer in Colombia. Last August, she and her fiance, fellow Suffolk student Santiago Ruiz Castilla, got married. Ruiz Castillo left Long Island in late July for Colombia as the couple decided to go back home.

Lopez Garcia said the transition back to Colombia after six years away hasn’t been easy, and she still harbors dreams of the United States.

"At any point that we have the chance to go back to America, we will take it," she said.

Two of Lopez Garcia’s former classmates at the college said they attended the ceremony to honor her and were still in shock over her deportation, which one called "devastating."

"They had her in a prison like a criminal," said Roxana Perez, 20. "She’s not a criminal at all ... She was the most beautiful person in the world."