Deported student refuses flight back to US following threat of second deportation
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Ms Any Lucia Lopez Belloza was due to take an ICE flight from Honduras back to the US, following a judge's order, but learned that US officials planned to deport her again when she arrived
PHOTO: REUTERS
- Any Lopez Belloza was wrongly deported to Honduras despite a judge's order; a US judge then ordered her return by the Trump administration.
- The administration arranged her return flight but stated she faced re-detention and deportation upon arrival, citing a prior removal order.
- Feeling misled and angered, Ms Lopez Belloza refused to board the flight. Her lawyer vowed to continue her legal fight against the administration.
AI generated
BOSTON - The Trump administration scheduled a Feb 27 flight to bring a deported college student back from Honduras after a judge ordered her return, but she declined to board the plane after US authorities said they may detain and deport her again.
Ms Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, a freshman at Babson College in Massachusetts, had been deported to a country she left when she was eight, after being detained at Boston’s Logan International Airport while travelling to spend Thanksgiving with her family in Texas.
The 20-year-old was flown to Honduras on Nov 22 despite a Massachusetts judge’s order the prior day barring her from being deported or transferred out of the state for 72 hours. A government lawyer later apologised for what he called a “mistake”.
Boston-based US District Judge Richard Stearns on Feb 13 ordered President Donald Trump’s administration to rectify the error it made during its immigration crackdown by Feb 27 by facilitating her return.
Ms Lopez Belloza told reporters she had been excited to learn on Feb 26 the administration had arranged for a flight to take her home.
“Hours later, that excitement turned into a nightmare,” Ms Lopez Belloza said.
She said a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer misled her by repeatedly telling her on Feb 26 that if she boarded the plane, she would be released upon landing in the US.
“I believed him for a second,” she said. “I pictured stepping off of the plane and finally being free.”
Yet in court filings on the afternoon of Feb 26, the administration said it planned to move to deport her again once she arrived.
It said it had the authority to detain her if she took the ICE flight from Honduras to Texas because she was already subject to a final order of removal, which was issued when she was 11.
“I won’t mince words,” Ms Lopez Belloza said, during a virtual press conference. “I am angry. I am sad.”
Mr Todd Pomerleau, Ms Lopez Belloza’s lawyer, accused the administration of “gamesmanship” and vowed to continue her legal fight.
“I’m not stopping until she’s back here, but she’s not coming back in handcuffs,” he said.
In a court filing later on Feb 27, the administration said Ms Lopez Belloza failed to appear for a pre-arranged meeting to assist with her departure and did not board the scheduled flight after previously agreeing to come to an airport in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
A spokesperson for US Attorney Leah Foley, whose office has been fighting Ms Lopez Belloza’s legal challenge, in a statement said the ICE-arranged flight was intended to restore the “status quo”.
“The status quo that existed prior to her removal was that she was subject to a final order of removal and as the government argued throughout this case, ICE has statutory authority to detain an individual to effectuate such removal,” the spokesperson, Ms Christina Sterling, said. REUTERS
