Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, 19, was removed to Honduras two days after she was detained at Boston Logan, court filings and her attorney say.
CONCORD, N.H. — A 19-year-old Babson College freshman who tried to fly to Texas to surprise her family for Thanksgiving was detained at Boston Logan International Airport on Nov. 20 and deported to Honduras two days later, despite an emergency federal court order issued the next day to halt her removal.
The case of Any Lucia Lopez Belloza has quickly widened from an airport stop to a court dispute over who had authority to intervene and when. Federal attorneys say a years-old removal order allowed immigration authorities to proceed. Her lawyer argues she was a minor when that order was issued and had no meaningful way to fight it. Babson College says it is supporting her academics remotely while she stays with relatives in Honduras. A deadline for further legal filings is approaching next week, setting the stage for sharper arguments over jurisdiction and due process.
Lopez Belloza, a first-year business student who has lived in the United States since childhood, was stopped by immigration officers at the gate as she prepared to board a flight from Boston to Texas the week before Thanksgiving. Within hours, a federal judge issued an emergency order directing that she not be moved out of Massachusetts or removed from the country. By that night, she had been transferred to a holding facility in Texas. She was flown to Honduras on Nov. 22, according to her attorney, who said the pace of the transfer made it difficult to track her location. Speaking from Honduras, Lopez Belloza said she was handcuffed during transport and spent a night sleeping on a detention center floor, calling the experience “unfair” and “frightening,” and adding that she had planned the trip as a surprise for her parents.
In a court filing this week, Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Sauter argued the Boston judge lacked jurisdiction by the time the order was entered, because Lopez Belloza had already been moved out of the district en route to removal. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has cited a removal order dating to 2015 or 2016, when Lopez Belloza was a child, as the basis for executing the deportation now. Her lawyer, Todd Pomerleau, disputes the government’s timeline and says he has been unable to locate a public record of the order that ICE describes. He said the family believed their earlier immigration case had been resolved and that his client received no direct notice as a minor. ICE officials say detainees are permitted to make calls and that transfers to out-of-state facilities are standard.
Lopez Belloza left Honduras as a child and had not lived there for more than a decade. She enrolled this fall at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., where administrators have told faculty to provide academic flexibility. The college president and the undergraduate dean have acknowledged limits on what the school can do in an ongoing federal matter but said staff are checking in with the student and her professors. The case has resonated on campus and in immigrant communities in Texas and Massachusetts, drawing attention to how legacy removal orders can surface years later and how fast transfers can occur once a traveler is flagged at an airport checkpoint.
Legally, the fight now centers on whether the emergency order issued Nov. 21 should have governed what happened next, and whether the government’s reliance on a childhood-era removal order was proper. Pomerleau said he plans to file a detailed response by Dec. 11, seeking relief that could include the government facilitating her return while the case proceeds. Federal officials have not said whether they would reconsider the removal on their own. No criminal charges are involved; the matter is being handled in civil immigration and federal district court. Additional hearings could be scheduled after the filings, and the judge could request more information about the transfer sequence and notice procedures.
From Honduras, Lopez Belloza has been staying with her grandparents and working to finish her semester online. “I was living my American dream, studying and focused on school,” she said, describing the abrupt shift from a holiday trip to a deportation. A Babson student who shares a class with her said the situation has “shaken people” and that professors have offered deadline extensions. Her attorney described the three-day span as a “horror show,” alleging that the rapid transfers left him guessing at her location and limited his ability to present her case before she was put on a plane.
As of Friday, the student remained in Honduras and her legal team was preparing its next filing due Dec. 11. The court could set a briefing schedule after that submission and decide whether to order new hearings or request records of her transfers. Babson officials say they will continue academic support while the case moves forward.
Author note: Last updated December 5, 2025.