Lucia Lopez Belloza, a 19-year-old Babson College freshman, says she was deported to Honduras on Nov. 22 after being detained at Boston's airport despite a judge's Nov. 21 order to keep her in the United States. In court filings, she recounts cramped detention conditions and says an ICE officer told her speaking to a lawyer would not stop her removal. Her attorneys accuse the government of hiding her whereabouts, failing to update detainee records and acting in bad faith, and have asked for a hearing to allow her to return and testify.
Babson Freshman Says ICE Officer Intimidated Her Before Thanksgiving Deportation
In this undated photo provided by her attorney, Todd Pomerleau, Any Lucia Lopez Belloza celebrates her high school graduation in Texas. - Any Lucia Lopez Belloza's attorney/AP
Lucia Lopez Belloza, a 19-year-old freshman at Babson College, says she was deported to Honduras on Nov. 22 after being detained at Boston Logan International Airport two days earlier — despite a judge's order the previous day directing that she remain in the United States.
Timeline and Detention Conditions
According to court filings, Lopez Belloza was held in custody and later flown out of the country while her lawyers were still seeking relief. She described two sleepless nights: first, excited anticipation of visiting family for Thanksgiving; and later, being confined with 17 other women in a cell "so small that we did not even have enough space to sleep on the floor." She is now staying with her grandparents in Honduras.
Alleged Intimidation and Legal Questions
Lopez Belloza says she came to the U.S. in 2014 at age 8 and was issued a deportation order in 2017 — a fact she contends she did not know because her prior attorney told her no removal order existed. "If I had been aware of my 2017 deportation order, I would not have traveled with my valid passport," she wrote in court.
Lopez Belloza also says that when she refused to sign a form consenting to deportation and asked to call her parents or a lawyer, a "tall, muscular, intimidating" ICE officer told her, "it didn't matter if I spoke to a lawyer because I was going to be deported anyway." She was later permitted to call family while still in Massachusetts, but that call occurred before she learned she would be flown to Texas and then Honduras.
The government argues the judge who issued the Nov. 21 order lacked jurisdiction to block the removal because, by that time, Lopez Belloza was already in transit through Texas. Her attorneys counter that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) made it effectively impossible to locate her by failing to update the federal detainee locator and by moving her without notice.
Court Filings And Requests
In a separate filing, Lopez Belloza's lawyers accused the government of acting "in bad faith and with furtiveness" — citing unanswered calls to the Boston-area ICE office, failure to update the detainee database, and the lack of opportunity for Lopez Belloza to notify her parents or counsel before being moved. They have asked a judge to schedule a hearing and to allow Lopez Belloza to return to the U.S. to testify.
The filings followed a letter from seven retired judges supporting Lopez Belloza's request for a hearing and urging the court to consider whether the government should be held in contempt for violating the order. The retired jurists warned that permitting willful disobedience of judicial orders would undermine the Constitution.
Authorities have disputed parts of the account in court papers, and the dispute centers on timing, jurisdiction and whether adequate notice and access to counsel were provided. The case highlights tensions over deportation procedures, detainee access to legal counsel, and the operation of ICE's detention and notification systems.
