A mistaken deportation, and an apology in court
Babson College freshman Any Lucia Lopez Belloza told The Associated Press that she was mistakenly deported to Honduras even though a Massachusetts judge ordered her not to leave the United States. She described the ordeal during a phone interview from Honduras, where she is staying with her grandparents.
Lopez Belloza, 19, said she was detained at Boston’s airport on Nov. 20 while preparing to fly back home to Texas for Thanksgiving, despite having no criminal record and having no reason, she said, to believe she was at risk of being sent back to her native Honduras. She said she was deported two days later, returning to Honduras for the first time since she was 8.
Sitting on a deportation flight headed to Texas, Lopez Belloza said she “just shocked” and felt numb, adding, “I don’t know, like I was numb,” in her interview with AP. She said she kept questioning herself as she tried to understand how it was happening to her, telling AP, “I just kept questioning myself. Why is it happening to me?”
Detained in an ICE facility before being sent away
Lopez Belloza said that at the airport, a federal immigration agent told her she had to sign a deportation document. When she refused, she said, the agent transferred her to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement holding facility. She said she described two nights detained in a cell with 17 other women, with what she said was not enough room to lie down and sleep.
She said she was able to make a phone call to her family before being loaded onto a plane to Texas, described by AP as her last stop before leaving the country. She told AP she was “numb the whole plane ride,” and said she was thinking, “If this is it, then this will be it,” even as she held out hope of avoiding deportation.
Missing family and trying to keep studying
Lopez Belloza said the hardest part of the deportation has been missing the holidays with her parents, and she said she has been depressed at times and has cried. She said her father and mother fear leaving their home in Texas because, she said, they have also been targeted by ICE despite applying for green cards. She described their fear in AP’s report, saying, “They’re scared. They’re scared to step outside because of how everything is,” and “They’re traumatized. I’m traumatized.”
Lopez Belloza said she has tried to keep her spirits up by talking regularly with her mother and maintaining her faith in God. She told AP she briefly considered going to a university in Honduras but decided to stick with Babson College, which has offered her support as she studies remotely.
Government apology for keeping her name on a flight list
AP reported that even though a Massachusetts judge’s order was meant to keep her in the U.S., an ICE officer mistakenly kept Lopez Belloza’s name on a deportation flight list. Lopez Belloza said she is “so appreciative of the apology that the government made” in court this week. She said that although she understands the apology reflects a mistake, it still hurt her, adding: “Based on that mistake that they made, my life did a 360 change.”
She said she was hoping to return quickly and told AP, “I’m just like hoping that I get back as soon as possible.”
Lawyer asks for a plan to return her to the U.S.
Lopez Belloza’s lawyer, Todd Pomerleau, asked a federal judge on Friday to order the Trump administration to come up with a plan to return her to the U.S. Pomerleau’s request came in a court filing in which he argued for a fast remedy and pointed the judge to other cases involving deportations carried out despite court-related barriers.
AP said the filing referenced the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador despite a ruling that should have prevented it, as well as the return of a Guatemalan man identified as O.C.G. to the U.S. after a judge found his removal from Mexico likely “lacked any semblance of due process.” Pomerleau also referenced those examples while seeking a deadline and describing possible paths for return, including a student visa.
The filing argued that a student-visa route could be complicated by Lopez Belloza’s prior removal order. AP reported that the government disputed the framing, saying it was lawfully able to deport her despite the court order because an immigration judge ordered Lopez Belloza and her mother removed in 2016 and the Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed their appeal in 2017.
Stearns: no jurisdiction, but urging the administration to remedy the mistake
Late Friday, U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns ruled he did not have jurisdiction over Lopez Belloza’s habeas petition because it was filed after she had already been flown to Texas. AP reported that while Stearns did not take the petition, he urged the Trump administration to consider a remedy for the mistake.
In the ruling, Stearns said there was “happily no one-size-fits-all solution” for addressing what he described as a series of errors that ended badly for Lopez Belloza. He also suggested that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio could issue Lopez Belloza a non-immigrant student visa that would allow her to continue her studies at Babson College while her immigration status played out through appropriate court processes.
Stearns said his court could order the government to quickly return her to the U.S., but that he “would prefer to give the government an opportunity to rectify the mistake it acknowledges having made” before contemplating any further order.
Pomerleau told AP he viewed the ruling as “excellent news” because Stearns was asking the government to “come up with a solution” in the next three weeks to bring Lopez Belloza back. He added, “I’m anxious to talk to the government representatives about a workable solution,” AP reported.