Luis Andrade Garcia, a TCU Neeley undergrad, was deported to El Salvador this week. Photo: GoFundMe
A 20-year-old Texas Christian University student was deported to El Salvador on Tuesday (July 21), following an arrest last month in Arlington, Texas that put him on ICE’s radar despite having lived in North Texas for most of his life, according to reports in the Dallas Morning News and other media outlets.
Luis Andrade Garcia came to the United States from El Salvador around age 3, federal officials say, crossing near Hidalgo, a border town in South Texas. He went on to graduate as valedictorian from Arlington’s Sam Houston High School in 2024 and enrolled at TCU, studying accounting and business information systems at the Neeley School of Business.
Because he arrived in 2009, Andrade Garcia did not qualify for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status, commonly known as Dreamers. The program requires arrival before June 2007.
ROUTINE STOP LED TO FEDERAL CUSTODY
According to reports, Arlington police say the case began June 28, when an officer spotted Andrade Garcia’s parked vehicle near Meadowbrook Park, turned on his overhead lights, and watched Andrade Garcia drive away. Officers found the car a couple hours later outside a home on Valley View Drive, and Andrade Garcia admitted he had driven off from the officer, according to police spokesman Tim Ciesco. He was booked into the Arlington city jail on one count of evading and transferred to the Tarrant County jail the next day.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement took Andrade Garcia into custody July 10, said agency spokeswoman Sarah Loicano. He was later held at an ICE facility in Jena, Louisiana, before his deportation this week.
“Attending school in the United States does not confer lawful immigration status,” Loicano told the Dallas Morning News in an email.
Luis Andrade Garcia’s valedictorian photo
FRATERNITY, UNIVERSITY RESPOND
Members of Andrade Garcia’s fraternity, Lambda Theta Phi, said this week they had not heard from him in days and launched a GoFundMe for his legal expenses. In the post, the fraternity called him “genuine, hardworking, selfless, honest, dependable and humble.” A fraternity spokesperson said his family is now working to hire an attorney.
The GoFundMe, organized by Raul Ozuna Jr and Ethan Paredez, had raised nearly $18,000 against a $10,000 goal as of Thursday afternoon. Organizers say the money will cover attorney fees, communication costs while Andrade Garcia is detained, and living expenses for his family.
In his valedictorian bio, published by Arlington ISD, Andrade Garcia urged incoming freshmen to “take a chance on yourself” and “challenge yourself,” adding that growth mattered more than grades.
Contacted by Poets&Quants, the Neeley School of Business deferred comment to the university. A TCU spokesperson said the university is working to gather more information but did not immediately provide an additional response. Andrade Garcia’s case adds to a wave of removals under the Trump administration’s deportation push, which reportedly detained more than 43,000 people in June alone.
The Andrade Garcia case is not the only case of a deported business school student to draw scrutiny: Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, a Babson College student deported to Honduras last November despite a federal court order barring her removal – a case P&Q covered extensively (see here and here).
DON’T MISS A CRUEL AND UNNECESSARY DEPORTATION OF A BABSON STUDENT THAT SHOULD OUTRAGE EVERY AMERICAN and WHEN FREE SPEECH STOPS AT THE STUDENT VISA
© Copyright 2026 Poets & Quants. All rights reserved. This article may not be republished, rewritten or otherwise distributed without written permission. To reprint or license this article or any content from Poets & Quants, please submit your request HERE.
