Babson Freshman Deported to Honduras Despite Court Order

A 19-year-old freshman at Babson College was deported to Honduras on November 22 while attempting to board a flight from Boston to Texas for a Thanksgiving visit with her family, despite an emergency federal court order prohibiting her removal from the United States, according to her attorney.

Any Lucia López Belloza had cleared security at Boston Logan International Airport on November 20 when immigration officers informed her of an issue with her boarding pass and took her into custody, her lawyer, Todd Pomerleau, said. The student, who had lived in the United States since arriving from Honduras at age seven, was transferred to federal detention and, within two days, flown first to Texas and then on a removal flight to her native country. She is now staying with her grandparents in Honduras, a place she has not seen since childhood.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement stated that López Belloza was subject to a deportation order issued by an immigration judge in 2015. Pomerleau contested this, noting that he could find no records of such an order and that the only documentation available indicated her immigration case had been closed in 2017. "They're holding her...