A Boston-area college student with ties to Texas was deported while trying to surprise her parents for the holiday.
Babson College student Any López Belloza boarded a flight to Austin the week before Thanksgiving to surprise her family when she was detained by immigration authorities, then sent to Texas before being deported to her native country of Honduras.
López Belloza's attorney, Todd Pomerleau, said she was stopped for violating a deportation order. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told KUT that order was issued in 2015, but Pomerleau said he hasn't found any record of an active deportation order, and that López Belloza came to the U.S. when she was a child.
"At the end of the day, this is a college student who came here at 7 years old to seek asylum with her family," Pomerleau said. "She's not responsible under the law for any decisions her parents made about her. She was a child."
Pomerleau said the deportation ran afoul of a federal court order filed on Nov. 21. Massachusetts U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs barred the government from deporting López Belloza until a court could hear her case, which would take at least three days. Pomerleau said she was flown to Texas and sent to Honduras on Nov. 22.
ICE confirmed that López Belloza was arrested on Thanksgiving, but did not say why, given the judge's order to hold off on her deportation.
"She received full due process and was removed to Honduras," an agency spokesperson said.
A federal judge ordered responses in López Belloza's case by Dec. 3.
Pomerleau said López Belloza's detention is part of a crackdown on people without legal status who don't have criminal backgrounds and that her deportation was "beyond the pale."
"We are fighting for her. We're not going to stop until she's back," he said. "She should not be sitting in Honduras. She should be sitting in her classroom ... and trying to fulfill her American dream."
López Belloza is currently staying with her grandparents in Honduras, Pomerleau said.
Babson College says it's providing academic support to her as her case continues. The college's President Stephen Spinelli Jr. said the school is "following established protocols" as the case makes its way through courts.
"We are staying informed through appropriate channels," Spinelli said. "Relevant faculty and staff have been informed so they can provide appropriate academic and community support in the student's absence."
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