DALLAS – A college student was detained at the airport in Boston while trying to board a flight to visit her parents in Texas for Thanksgiving.

An attorney for the 19-year-old said she was deported to Honduras less than two days later.

College Student Deported

The backstory:

Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, a student at Babson College in Boston, was planning to surprise her family in Austin ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, according to her lawyer.

Instead, she was detained at the airport and deported to Honduras, even though a federal judge issued an emergency order prohibiting the government from moving her out of Massachusetts or the United States for at least 72 hours.

What they’re saying:

Attorney Todd Pomerleau said Belloza’s family fled from Honduras in 2014 when she was just 7 years old.

He believes something put her on the radar for immigration authorities, possibly a discrepancy in her case from many years ago.

“They shackled her around her ankles, around her wrists, around her waist. They did like a perp walk with her, treated her like she was a criminal suspect. And all she is is a dreamer that’s been, you know, trying to have a better life for herself. She doesn’t have a criminal record. And at most, she might have a flaw in her case from over, you know, nearly a decade ago that she didn’t even know about. She didn’t even attend her court hearing. Her parents were responsible for that. And children aren’t responsible for understanding the law when they’re 7 and 8 years old,” he said.

Pomerleau said attending college is one Belloza’s dreams. She was looking forward to returning home to tell her parents and younger sisters about her first semester studying business.

Babson College’s Dean of Campus Life said the school is limited in what it can say about the case, but that relevant faculty and staff have been informed.

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The other side:

In the federal government’s eyes, Belloza has been in the country for over 10 years illegally.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told the Associated Press that an immigration judge ordered her deported in 2015.

That’s something her attorney disputes. He said the only record he’s been able to find indicates her case was closed in 2017.

“She wasn’t here illegally; she was seeking asylum, which is a legal process. They’re not telling you that. She was allowed to enter with her family to apply for asylum. That’s a legal process. It’s protected by federal laws and various treaties our government has signed over the years. And if we don’t like asylum, well, we change the laws. But the law required her to be able to utilize that process,” Pomerleau said.

ICE did not respond to the Associated Press’s requests for comments about the emergency order.

What’s next:

Belloza is currently staying with her grandparents in Honduras while her lawyer works to find out why she was deported without a court hearing for something he claims was an error.

“Right now, we’re dealing with a situation where a federal judge, in my view, is going have to make a decision about what should happen next. What we believe should happen next is she should be brought back to the United States to have her court hearings and be entitled to the due process of law that everyone is entitled to on US soil, regardless of their citizenship status,” Pomerleau said.

The Source: The information in this story comes from an attorney for 19-year-old Any Lucia Lopez Belloza and the Associated Press.

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