Any Lucia Lopez Belloza arrived on the airport in Boston excited to embark on a shock journey home to spend Thanksgiving with her household in Texas. The 19‑12 months‑previous freshman at Babson College was nearing the top of her first semester learning enterprise – a serious she hoped would assist her father open his personal tailor store sooner or later.
But as a substitute of getting to hug her mother and father and two little sisters and inform them how college was going, Lopez Belloza was arrested by federal immigration officers moments earlier than getting on her flight on November 20. She was instructed there was an issue with her boarding go, and on her approach to customer support she was “surrounded, (placed) in handcuffs, and dragged out of the airport,” her legal professional, Todd Pomerleau, instructed NCS.
In the roughly 48 hours after, Lopez Belloza was despatched to Texas after which Honduras, the nation the place she was born however had not seen since she was 7 years previous, when her mother and father introduced her to the US to search asylum.
Lopez Belloza was deported regardless of a federal decide’s order prohibiting the federal government from eradicating her from the US while a lawsuit over her arrest performed out in courtroom, in accordance to her legal professional.
NCS reached out to the DHS and ICE concerning Lopez Belloza’s case.
The Department of Homeland Security mentioned an immigration decide ordered Lopez Belloza’s elimination in 2015, and that she “illegally stayed in the country since,” in accordance to a press release obtained by NCS affiliate KEYE.
Pomerleau instructed NCS Lopez Belloza was by no means proven a warrant, a elimination order or given any rationalization for why she had been detained. “I still am not convinced that she ever had an order removal … she wasn’t shown any proof,” he mentioned.
Pomerleau mentioned the one information he’s present in authorities databases point out her case was closed in 2017.
The scholar’s father, Francis, instructed the Austin American-Statesman that his household was denied asylum, however that that they had been assured by the decide that they didn’t have deportation orders. The outlet solely recognized him by his first identify due to his immigration standing, it mentioned.
After her arrest, Lopez Belloza was taken to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s regional headquarters in Burlington, Massachusetts, in accordance to Pomerleau.
From the sphere workplace, she was transferred to a army base in Massachusetts after which flown to Texas, the place she spent the evening in a detention facility earlier than being deported to Honduras the next afternoon.
“She had chains around her ankles. Handcuffs on her wrists,” Pomerleau instructed NCS. “Put on a plane and deported to a country she hadn’t been at in like 12 years. It’s beyond the pale.”
Lopez Belloza – who spent most of her life in Texas, the place her father is elevating her two youthful sisters, ages 2 and 5 – determined to enroll at Babson after visiting schools throughout the nation.
She had labored laborious all through highschool and acquired a scholarship to examine in Massachusetts, her lawyer mentioned.
“She wanted to study business and help her dad create his own business one day, a tailoring shop,” Pomerleau mentioned. “He hand-made suits for her so she could wear them to interviews and go to … internships, things like that.”
Speaking to The Boston Globe, who first reported the story, Lopez Belloza mentioned she had been keen to return home to Austin and share her college experiences with her household. “I have worked so hard to be able to be at Babson my first semester, that was my dream,” she instructed the Globe from her grandparents’ home in San Pedro Sula.
NCS has reached out to Babson College for remark.
Pomerleau mentioned the main target now is on returning Lopez Belloza to the US.
“We’re going to ask that the federal judge require the United States to bring her back to the United States because it is an egregious violation of her due process rights.”