Babson student heading to Texas for Thanksgiving surprise deported to Honduras instead

Local News

Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, a business major at Babson, was swiftly deported in violation of a court order, her lawyer alleged.

A freshman at Babson College was detained at Logan Airport last week and swiftly deported to Honduras as she attempted to fly back home to surprise family in Texas during her Thanksgiving break. 

The deportation of Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, 19, was done in violation of a court order, according to her lawyer. 

Belloza is originally from Honduras, but grew up in Texas before moving to Massachusetts to study business at Babson. She has traveled on planes multiple times, including recently, without any issues, her attorney, Todd Pomerleau, said. 

She went through security checkpoints at Logan last Thursday without issue and was about to board her plane when she was told that there was an issue with her boarding pass. Belloza was informed that she had to speak with customer service but was quickly detained by federal immigration authorities. She was not told why she was being detained, according to Pomerleau. Belloza had been told growing up that she had a pending immigration case, but that it was resolved back in 2017. 

Belloza was taken to an ICE facility in Burlington, then flown to Texas. After frantically searching for information on Belloza’s whereabouts, Pomerleau filed a lawsuit against federal officials and requested an emergency order requiring Belloza not be removed from the U.S. for a period of at least 72 hours. That order was granted just after 6 p.m. Friday by District Judge Allison Burroughs. 

But on Monday, Pomerleau learned that Belloza had been flown from Texas to Honduras on Saturday. This was done in violation of the court order, he said. 

“We learned that she was illegally removed Saturday from Texas to Honduras, never shown any removal order, never told why she was being removed. We couldn’t even find proof of a removal order anywhere in the databases available to us,” he said. 

Spokespeople for ICE did not return requests for comment Wednesday. Neither did a spokesperson for Babson. 

Belloza was able to connect with her grandparents in Honduras and call Pomerleau and others in the U.S. this week. But she is staying in a rural community, and communication is spotty. 

“We’re not going to stop until she’s back in the states. This is illegal behavior and there needs to be accountability for it. There will be,” Pomerleau said.