Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, a 19-year-old Babson College freshman, must be returned to the United States after a federal judge in Boston ordered the government to retrieve her within two weeks, according to the court order issued Friday. The ruling came after the government acknowledged it mistakenly deported her while she was traveling for Thanksgiving in November, and after the court said it had hoped the administration would resolve the matter without the judge stepping in.
In the order, U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns required Belloza’s return by the end of February. Stearns said he had hoped the Trump administration would come up with a solution after it acknowledged the mistake, but that having failed to do so, the court was compelled to act. The judge said the dispute was for the courts to determine, rather than for the executive branch to “prejudge and arrogate to itself” by litigating the removal issue outside the courtroom.
Belloza’s attorney, Todd Pomerleau, welcomed the decision. In a statement, Pomerleau said the court ordered “Any’s immediate return,” and he described her as “a remarkable, resilient young woman deserving of this outcome,” adding that the ruling reflected the “outpouring of support” from people who had fought for what his statement called “Any’s Dream.”
The government, through the Department of Homeland Security, responded by email with a statement saying Belloza received “full due process” and that a final order of removal was issued by an immigration judge. The department also said Belloza entered the United States in 2014 and that the removal order followed in the year after she entered.
The case also includes a dispute over whether Belloza had notice of the removal proceedings. The government has said she missed multiple opportunities to appeal, while Belloza said her previous attorney told her there had been no removal order. Pomerleau said previously that the government’s response “spills a lot of ink on the difficulty of a student visa,” but does not address “the numerous simple solutions available to itself” to correct the “mistaken” deportation, a remark Belloza’s team made before he could not be reached for additional comment late Friday.
According to the reporting, Belloza has no criminal history. She was detained at Boston’s airport on Nov. 20 as she prepared to fly home to Texas for the holiday, and she was deported two days later. Since the deportation, she has been staying with her grandparents in Honduras, a country she had last been to more than a decade earlier.
Babson College has offered Belloza support to continue her studies remotely as she pursues a business degree, the reporting said, as she awaits the outcome of her case and the government’s compliance with the court’s deadline.