Dave Gonzalez holds a sign at a Tampa protest // Chris Young, 10/15/25, WMNF News
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Protestors rallied outside the downtown Tampa courthouse on Wednesday calling for a halt to the deportation of an immigrant mother and for all immigrants.
Protesters shouted in support of Mabelyn Hernandez Diaz.
According to the Tampa Immigrant Rights Committee, Hernandez Diaz is a nursing mother and asylum seeker with no criminal record facing deportation.
Odelis is a friend of Mabelyn’s and held Mabelyn’s young child as protestors shouted in support.
She said she wants one thing:
“Que haya justicia y que ella sea liberada,” Odelis told WMNF.
That there is justice and that she is freed.
One protestor, Dave Gonzalez, held a sign that read “Mothers and babies belong together!”
He called the country’s immigration policies cruel.
“I think it’s wrong that people who are trying to come here for help and to better their lives are being treated as criminals,” Gonzalez said.
Immigration crackdowns have been a focus nationwide due to the Trump administration and specifically in Florida, with local police partnering with ICE and the construction of detention sites like Alligator Alcatraz in the state.