A federal district court judge in Massachusetts dismissed the case of a Babson College student mistakenly deported by ICE in November.
However, the ruling came a day after lawyers for Any Lucia Lopez Belloza documented what they called “a trap” in which ICE offered to bring her back only to re-deport her.
Lopez Belloza was detained at Logan Airport on Nov. 20 while traveling home to Texas to surprise her family for Thanksgiving. She wasn’t allowed to make any calls to family or an attorney and was deported to Honduras the next day, a country she hadn’t been to since she was eight.
Attorneys for Lopez Belloza filed a habeas lawsuit in federal court for the District of Massachusetts, seeking a lawful process for her return.
In early February, Richard Stearns, a federal judge for the District of Massachusetts, ordered the government to facilitate Lopez Belloza’s return after it emerged that an ICE officer failed to activate an alert system that would have flagged that she shouldn’t have been deported. While the federal government admitted it had made a mistake, it argued that Lopez Belloza needed to file the case in Texas since that’s where she was being detained at the time.
Attorneys for Lopez Belloza argued that the federal government had been deceptive about where she was being held, and urged the judge not to dismiss the case.
But in Friday’s ruling, Stearns rejected that argument, and said that Lopez Belloza her turned down an offer of a flight back to the U.S. last week.
“The sad truth is that when Any declined the flight she also waived this court’s only remaining basis for jurisdiction. Any civil contempt dissolved when the government complied with the facilitation order. The petition thus must be dismissed,” wrote Stearns.
Lopez Belloza’s attorney Todd Pomerleau immediately appealed to the First Circuit Court of Appeals.
Lawyers detail ICE 'trap’
But Lopez Belloza and her attorneys insist federal immigration agents had been intentionally deceptive in planning the flight last week and would have detained and deported her almost immediately upon her return.
In a court filing Thursday night, photos of text messages reveal a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent messaged 20-year-old Lopez Belloza on WhatsApp on Feb. 26, just a day before a court-ordered deadline for the government to return her to the U.S.
In those text messages, ICE agent Raul Castro offered Lopez Belloza a flight from Honduras to Texas, where he said that she “most likely” would be let go.
But according to Pomerleau, attorney for Lopez Belloza, “it was a trap.”
“The government’s court filings last Thursday made clear it intended to detain and deport Any Sunday, 72 hours after she arrived in Texas,” said Pomerleau. “This was contradicted by an ICE agent baiting her to board a plane by giving false assurances that she would likely be free upon arrival.”
The exchange was documented in a Thursday filing in which Pomerleau argued the federal judge must deny the government’s attempt to have her case dismissed and reconsider its jurisdictional decision.
The filing said the Trump administration is trying to evade any court review of the legality of her detention and deportation.
Lopez Belloza talked to GBH News from Honduras Friday, and said she had been excited to return to college life.
“My friends, meeting new people, making new connections — all of that is being taken away from me at the moment and those are kind of things that I am sad about,” she said.
Pomerleau said the federal government didn’t relay any kind of travel plans until “day 13” of its two-week window to have her return to the U.S.
Castro, the ICE agent, called Lopez Belloza on WhatsApp before asking her via messenger for a photo of her passport, which she provided. She asked where in Texas she would be arriving, and what her final destination would be, saying she needed to communicate with her attorney.
Castro said the flight would be to Harlingen, Texas, then said “after that is when the process starts and I wouldn’t know what to tell you about where they would take you.”
Belloza asked if she would be “let go” from there. He replied, “most likely yes Any, as I mentioned, as soon as you arrive they begin to take your case.”
Meanwhile, Pomerleau was trying to contact Castro, but said he didn’t pick up. The court filing included a screenshot of the attempted call. Pomerleau said Lopez Belloza was supposed to fly out of a specific airport in Honduras, but said ICE wouldn’t answer questions from him and Lopez Belloza about what would happen to her when she arrived back in the U.S.
The government filed a motion to dismiss the case last month, which revealed its plans to detain her upon arrival. Pomerleau said the WhatsApp messages to Lopez Belloza say the opposite, and the timing of the motion was “unusual.”
The next morning, Belloza asked Castro on WhatsApp if anyone could go with her on the flight, and was told no, the flight is “personal.” He asked her to confirm her “attendance,” and called, but she didn’t pick up. Castro then sent repeated messages asking if she was at the airport, and said he was in “front of the United desk, wearing a long sleeve brown shirt and black pants.”
She stopped replying.
Lopez Belloza told GBH News the whole situation was traumatizing.
'“I would expect them having an organized plan, but also him not knowing if they will set me free. I was, like, OK, this is confusing. This is a little bit fishy, like Gen Z’s like to say. I was like, am I being freed? Am I being played? Is this a whole trap? What is happening?”'
Lopez Belloza found it strange that she was told the flight back would be a chartered flight, and that instead of the 40-pound suitcase she was previously told she could bring, she was later told to only bring a backpack instead. She also found it suspicious that the agent was claiming to be next to United, a commercial airline.
“Not knowing what would happen to me— brought me a lot of fear because I don’t know in what type of hands that I’d be landing into,” Lopez Belloza said in the interview from Honduras. “So it was just a lot of emotions, excitement, feeling depressed, feeling I’m scared for not knowing what would happen.”
Lopez Belloza, who has no criminal record, has been taking classes remotely at Babson College in a specially-designed program. She’s staying with grandparents.
The Department of Homeland Security said that ICE tried to comply with the court’s order, but she “failed to appear for her prearranged flight.”
The agency also said Lopez Belloza had a removal order issued over a decade ago.
Lopez Belloza said she had no idea there was a removal order against her. She said she has a pending green card application.
A media inquiry to Castro went unanswered.
