A Massachusetts college student has been deported to Honduras after attempting to fly down to Austin, Texas, to surprise her family for Thanksgiving.
Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, a 19 year-old business major at Babson College in Wellesley who came to the U.S. in 2014 when she was eight years old, was detained at Boston Logan International Airport last Thursday as she was about to board her flight, having already successfully passed through security without incident.
Todd Pomerleau, her attorney, explained that Lopez Belloza had been told there was a problem with her ticket when she scanned her boarding pass and referred to a customer service desk, whereupon she was taken into federal custody.
“They wouldn’t tell her why she was being detained,” Pomerleau told The Boston Globe. “She didn’t understand it at all.”
Lopez Belloza was taken to ICE’s Burlington field office in an unmarked car, according to the lawyer. Then, in a bitter irony, she was flown to Texas on Saturday after all, only to subsequently find herself deported to Honduras, a country to which she has not returned since childhood.
Only after 48 hours was she able to call her frantic parents from her grandparents’ home in San Pedro Sula to let them know what had happened, heartbroken to miss the holidays with her young sisters and fearful for the future.
Speaking to CBS Austin, Pomerleau scathingly characterized the tactics used to detain his client as an “unconstitutional bag job” and Lopez Belloza as “a Dreamer living a draconian nightmare right now.” The Independent has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and ICE for comment.
“I have worked so hard to be able to be at Babson my first semester, that was my dream,” Lopez Belloza told the Globe from Honduras, recounting her frightening experience. “I’m losing everything.”
Nayna Gupta, policy director at the American Immigration Council, has been helping the student’s family since her plight became known and said Lopez Belloza had been the subject of an outstanding removal order since 2017, although she had not been aware of it.
“[Her family] didn’t know to show up somewhere, and she certainly had no idea of any of this,” Gupta said, explaining that immigration courts can issue such orders without the subject being present and that notifications are all too frequently mailed to incorrect addresses.
“People with final orders of removal, like this young college freshman from Babson College, are highly vulnerable under an administration that is pursuing such a cruel and indiscriminate deportation agenda,” she added, alluding to President Donald Trump’s second term crackdown on illegal immigration.
According to court documents ABC News, a federal judge had ordered the government not to remove Lopez Belloza from the U.S. and not to transfer her outside of Massachusetts, instructions that appear to have been ignored.
“She was in a court process that she thought ended favorably, she was then nine or 10-years-old,” Pomerleau told 7 News Boston. “She’s a child under the immigration law. She’s under the age of 21. She’s going to college. She has zero record.
“We believe her constitutional rights were violated, the way she was arrested, not having any notice why she’s arrested, not shown any documents to justify her abrupt, egregious removal from the United States of America.
“You’re supposed to be thankful this time of the year. Just be thankful ICE hasn’t destroyed your family.”
Ricky Soto, a family friend who works with the student’s father Francis at a Texas tailoring business, said that he had arranged the fateful ticket for Lopez Belloza to return to her parents and subsequently helped them to find legal backing.
“It really didn’t feel like it was real life because nothing made sense,” he told the Globe. “I can only imagine how terrifying that was for her… She was so excited, because she wasn’t expecting to come home.”
He added that the family had endured a tough time since settling in the U.S. but were “really proud” when their eldest daughter had been accepted into Babson on a scholarship.
Pomerleau said his client was “really sad” about what had happened to her, missed her family and was concerned that she may never be able to complete her finals, which are scheduled in a matter of weeks.
“I told her, ‘We’re going to fight like hell until we bring you back,’” he said.
