A university student in the United States who was deported during a Thanksgiving family visit had multiple opportunities to contest a removal order that was first issued during her childhood, according to a US government attorney.
Thanksgiving Trip Ends in Deportation
Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, a 19-year-old freshman at Babson College in Massachusetts, was detained at Boston's airport on 20 November. Despite a court order issued the following day, 21 November, instructing her to remain in the state, she was flown to Honduras just two days after her initial detention.
Assistant US Attorney Mark Sauter stated in a court filing that the Boston judge lacked jurisdiction to intervene because by the time the order was issued, Lopez Belloza was already in Texas being processed for removal from the country.
Conflicting Accounts of Communication and Procedure
The government's response, filed on Wednesday, contends that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) did not conceal the student's location. Sauter wrote that she was able to call her family on the afternoon of her arrest and was informed where to file a legal petition. Her transfer to Texas was for removal preparation, he argued, not to obscure her whereabouts.
Her attorney, Todd Pomerleau, strongly disputes this account. He claims that after the initial call, ICE provided no meaningful way to locate his client. Pomerleau said an ICE database showed her in Massachusetts on 20 November but had no information the next day, phone calls to the local field office went unanswered, and calls disconnected after an automated message.
"We literally have to guess not only where our client is, but why they're being held because they don't give us any information," Pomerleau said in a phone interview.
A Removal Order From Childhood
Lopez Belloza, who is now staying with her grandparents in Honduras, originally came to the US in 2014 at the age of eight. According to the government, a judge ordered the removal of both her and her mother in March 2016. The Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed an appeal in February 2017.
Sauter's filing notes she could have subsequently appealed to the Fifth Circuit court, filed a motion to reconsider, or sought a stay of removal from ICE. However, Pomerleau argues these legal avenues were meaningless to a child who was unaware the order existed. He states another lawyer advised her parents "not to worry about it" at the time.
"She had all these ways of winning but was completely living her life with blindfolds on," Pomerleau said.
Ongoing Case and Remote Studies
The court has given Pomerleau until 11 December to file a formal response to the government's arguments. The US attorney noted that while her case could have been transferred to a Texas court, it was unnecessary as the government had already released her from custody—in Honduras.
Pomerleau said his client remains traumatised by the event but is working with Babson College to take her final exams and complete her freshman year remotely. "She's just a remarkable young woman," he said, "and we're gonna ensure she continues to have a bright future."
