A Massachusetts college student’s holiday trip to visit her family has turned into a case raising serious questions about immigration enforcement, due process, and the speed at which deportations are now carried out.

Nineteen-year-old Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, a business major at Babson College, had been eagerly preparing to surprise her parents in Austin, Texas, for Thanksgiving. The Honduran-born student, who entered the U.S. as a young child and has lived most of her life in the country, successfully passed through security at Boston Logan International Airport and was minutes from boarding her flight when everything changed.

According to her attorney, Todd Pomerleau, Lopez Belloza was stopped at the gate after airline staff told her there was an issue with her boarding pass. What appeared to be a simple ticket glitch quickly escalated. Moments later, she found herself surrounded by immigration agents, handcuffed, and taken into custody—without any explanation she could understand.

She was transported to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Massachusetts and informed that she had an outstanding removal order dating back years. Pomerleau argues that neither Lopez Belloza nor her family had ever been properly notified of such an order, and that past asylum proceedings gave them the impression their case had been resolved, not escalated.

While her attorney worked urgently to intervene, ICE continued transferring the student between multiple facilities. Within hours, Pomerleau secured a federal court order barring her removal and restricting ICE from transporting her outside Massachusetts. But by then, he says, ICE had already placed her on a flight out of the state.

What followed was an even swifter chain of events: Lopez Belloza was flown first to a Texas detention center, shackled at her wrists and ankles, and then placed on a plane to Honduras—a country she has not called home since childhood. By the time her attorney and family realized what had happened, she was already in San Pedro Sula, staying with relatives and grappling with the collapse of her academic and personal plans.

Speaking from Honduras, the student described her ordeal as frightening, confusing, and devastating. With college finals approaching, she fears she may lose the opportunity she worked years to earn. “I’m losing everything,” she said, overwhelmed by the sudden rupture of her life in the U.S.

Her attorney has called the handling of her case “a cascade of constitutional violations,” including detaining her without showing documentation, blocking access to counsel, and ignoring a federal judge’s stay order. He believes the case signals a troubling expansion of immigration arrests during domestic travel—something he has never witnessed in his years of habeas litigation.

Lopez Belloza’s family, who settled in Austin after arriving in the U.S., said they were blindsided. They insist they were never informed of a removal order and would never have encouraged their daughter to travel had they known.

Despite criticism from immigrant-rights groups, some figures within the Trump-aligned immigration apparatus praised the deportation, calling her student status irrelevant.

Pomerleau says the fight is far from over. He intends to pursue every legal avenue to compel the government to return the student to the U.S., citing past cases where judges ordered similarly wrongful deportations reversed.

For now, a young woman who left home imagining a joyful family holiday is instead thousands of miles away, hoping the system that rushed her out of the country might somehow allow her back.

FAQ

1. Who is Any Lucia Lopez Belloza?
She is a 19-year-old Babson College freshman who came to the U.S. from Honduras as a child.

2. Why was she detained at the airport?
ICE agents claimed she had a longstanding deportation order. Her lawyer argues she was never properly notified.

3. Was there a court order protecting her from deportation?
Yes. A federal judge issued a stay of removal, but ICE deported her before the order could take effect.

4. Where is she now?
She is currently in Honduras, staying with relatives.

5. Will she be able to return to the U.S.?
Her attorney is pursuing legal options to demand her return.