Trump administration will not give mistakenly deported Babson student a pathway back to U.S.

The Trump administration is refusing to allow a Babson College student to return the United States, after admitting that deporting her was a "mistake."

When Babson College freshman Any Lucia Lopez Belloza was leaving Boston to visit family for the Thanksgiving holiday, she was detained at Logan Airport. She was flown to Honduras two days later, in violation of a court order to keep her in the U.S.

Despite saying they made a mistake in sending her to Honduras, government lawyers maintain that her deportation was lawful. Her family came to the U.S. when she was a child in 2014, and the federal government says there was a removal order for Lopez Belloza dating back to 2016.

In a court filing Friday, U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Leah Foley said federal officials "respectfully decline to return Petitioner to the status quo as existed prior to the inadvertent violation" since Lopez Belloza "would remain subject to detention and removal if returned to the United States."

U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns had recommended that a student visa, or a comparable status, be given to Lopez Belloza, according to the court filing, and asked if the Secretary of State would “exercise his considerable discretion" under the Immigration and Nationality Act to grant the young woman a non-immigrant student visa.

Foley said that was "unfeasible as the Secretary of State lacks authority to adjudicate visa applications and issue visas." Furthermore, she said Lopez Belloza "appears ineligible for a student visa."

Two criteria for a non-immigrant student visa, according to Foley, are to demonstrate residency in a foreign country the person has "no intention of abandoning" and also to not be "inadmissible" to the U.S. Because Lopez Belloza faces a removal order, Foley said, she currently is considered "inadmissible."

Previously, the student's attorney Todd Pomerleau has argued she was a child at the time of her removal order and wasn't aware of the options she had to appeal.

He declined to comment on the administration's response Monday.