A federal judge has been urged to compel the administration to devise a plan for the return of a Babson College student, wrongfully deported to Honduras just before Thanksgiving. The student's lawyer made the request in a court filing on Friday.
Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, a freshman at Babson College, was detained at Boston airport on 20 November as she prepared to fly home to surprise her family for the holidays. She was deported to Honduras two days later. This occurred despite an emergency court order mandating her retention in the US for a minimum of 72 hours. While government lawyers conceded in court that they had violated the judge's order, they contended the court lacked jurisdiction.
“Petitioner is not asking this court to micromanage foreign affairs or dictate outcomes beyond the Government's power,” her lawyer Todd Pomerleau wrote. “Instead, the petition asks for a bounded, transparent and practical process: require the Government to identify and pursue steps available to it — across DHS components and, if necessary in coordination with the Department of State — to return petition to the United States.”
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Pomerleau is asking the judge to order the government to come up with a plan within 14 days.
Among the proposed scenarios is returning Belloza to the U.S. “for the limited and urgent purpose of restoring the status quo ante and allowing Petitioner to purse appropriate immigration proceedings.” She also could be allowed to continue to pursue a pending T visa, granted to those who were subject to human trafficking. Another option would be a student visa, though Pomerleau noted that “typically requires consular processing and will be complicated by the existence of a final order of removal and related inadmissibility issues.”
A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Lopez Belloza, whose family emigrated from Honduras to the U.S. in 2014, is currently staying with grandparents and studying remotely. She is not detained and was recently visiting an aunt in El Salvador.
Her case is the latest involving a deportation carried out despite a court order. Kilmar Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador even though there was a ruling that should have prevented it. The Trump administration initially fought efforts to bring him back to the U.S. but eventually complied after the U.S. Supreme Court weighed in. And last June, a Guatemalan man identified as O.C.G. was returned to the U.S. after a judge found his removal from Mexico likely “lacked any semblance of due process.”
Pomerleau reference both cases in Friday's court filing.
At a federal court hearing Tuesday in Boston, the government argued the court lacks jurisdiction because lawyers for Lopez Belloza filed their action several hours after she arrived in Texas while en route out of the country. But the government also acknowledged it violated the judge’s order.
The government maintains her deportation was lawful because an immigration judge ordered the removal of Lopez Belloza and her mother in 2016, and the Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed their appeal in 2017. Prosecutors said she could have pursued additional appeals or sought a stay of removal.
Pomerleau countered that she was deported in clear violation of the Nov. 21 order and said the government’s actions deprived her of due process. “I was hoping the government would show some leniency and bring her back,” he said. “They violated a court order.”
U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns said he appreciated the government acknowledging the error, calling it a “tragic” bureaucratic mistake. But he appeared to rule out holding the government in contempt, noting the violation did not appear intentional. He also questioned whether he has jurisdiction over the case, appearing to side with the government in concluding the court order had been filed several hours after she had been sent to Texas.
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