A Babson College freshman’s holiday trip home ended in a sudden arrest and rapid deportation that her attorney says violated a federal judge’s order.
Todd Pomerleau, attorney, on student deported to Honduras: “She had chains around her ankles. Handcuffs on her wrists”
A Babson College student’s first semester was upended when federal immigration officers stopped her at Boston Logan International Airport and sent her to Honduras within two days, a removal her lawyer says defied a court order. The case, detailed by CNN, has sparked questions about due process and how a 19-year-old who grew up in Texas was transported out of the country so quickly.
A college journey interrupted
Any Lucia Lopez Belloza had planned to surprise her family in Austin for Thanksgiving. Instead, attorney Todd Pomerleau says she was handcuffed and taken from the airport after officials told her there was a problem with her boarding pass. He told CNN she was “surrounded, placed in handcuffs, and dragged out of the airport” before being moved through multiple facilities and flown to Texas, then Honduras. She had not been to Honduras since age seven.
The Department of Homeland Security said she had been ordered removed in 2015 and remained in the country unlawfully. Her attorney disputes that and says she was never shown a warrant or proof that an active order existed. “She had chains around her ankles. Handcuffs on her wrists,” Pomerleau said. He also told CNN that government databases he reviewed list her case as closed in 2017.
Family hopes and legal questions
Her father told the Austin American-Statesman the family was denied asylum years ago but believed no deportation orders remained. Lopez Belloza had earned a scholarship to Babson and hoped to study business to help her father open a tailoring shop, and make a meaningful contribution to American society.
Pomerleau says the legal priority now is securing her return. He plans to ask a federal judge to order the government to bring her back to the United States.
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