CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – A Massachusetts college student has come forward after being deported to Honduras while trying to visit her family for Thanksgiving. Lucia Lopez Belloza, a 19-year-old freshman at Babson College, was detained at Boston's Logan International Airport on November 20 and subsequently flown back to Honduras on November 22. This event occurred just a day after a judge had ordered that she remain in the United States.
Lopez Belloza expressed the emotional turmoil she experienced during her detainment. In a court document filed on Saturday, she detailed her sleepless nights—first filled with excitement about reuniting with her family, followed by the grim reality of being held in a cramped cell with 17 other women. She described the cell as so small that they lacked enough space to sleep on the floor.
Lucia came to the United States in 2014 at the age of 8, but over the years she was ordered deported due to missing multiple opportunities to appeal her status. She contended that her previous attorney had informed her there was no existing removal order against her. “If I had been aware of my 2017 deportation order, I would not have traveled with my valid passport,” Lopez Belloza stated. She emphasized that had she known her situation, she would have worked diligently to resolve her immigration issues.
Complications arose when the government argued that the judge who issued the order on November 21 lacked jurisdiction because Lopez Belloza was already en route to Texas by that time. However, her legal team contends that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) made it nearly impossible for them to locate her during the deportation proceedings.
During her detainment, Lopez Belloza recounted a troubling encounter with an ICE officer, whom she described as “tall, muscular, and intimidating.” According to her, when she refused to sign a consent form for her deportation and sought to contact her parents or a lawyer, the officer emphasized that it would not matter if she spoke to a lawyer because she was going to be deported regardless.
Although she was eventually allowed to call her family from Massachusetts, this occurred before she was informed of her impending transfer to Texas and then on to Honduras. In a legal filing, her attorneys accused the government of acting “in bad faith and with furtiveness,” noting that they were unresponsive to phone calls made to the ICE office in greater Boston and failed to update its detainee locator database adequately. They also alleged that ICE moved Lopez Belloza without allowing her to notify her family or legal counsel about her situation.
In support of Lopez Belloza's case, a group of seven retired judges submitted a letter to the court, urging the judge to hold a hearing regarding the government’s actions. They highlighted concerns over the potential contempt of court for violating the initial order issued to prevent her deportation, stating that permitting the government to disregard court orders fundamentally undermines the Constitution.
