Federal judge orders U.S. to bring Babson student back after deportation error

U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns minced no words Friday, ordering the Trump administration to bring back a mistakenly deported Babson College student, saying, "Now it is time for the government to make amends."

Any Lucia Lopez Belloza was detained at Logan Airport in November, on her way to visit her family in Texas for the Thanksgiving holiday. Before she could board the plane, ICE handcuffed her and detained her at the agency's Burlington field office.

She was sent to her native Honduras despite a court order that put a temporary hold on deporting her. In the filing Friday,  Stearns wrote that Lopez Belloza "remains in Honduras today, living with her grandmother, and struggling to remain current with her studies and exams at Babson College" via Zoom.

Stearns cited scripture in his 8-page ruling, saying, "Wisdom counsels that redemption may be found by acknowledging and fixing our own errors," and calls this an "unfortunate case" in which the government has already admitted it "did wrong."

He ordered that Lopez Belloza be returned to the U.S. within 14 days.

In an interview, the Babson student's lawyer, Todd Pomerleau, praised the ruling. He said the ball is now in the government's court: "The judge has required the government to bring her back to the United States, which we are happy with," he said. "We just await to see what the government chooses to do in light of this posture."

The judge wrote that the federal court in Boston has “inherent authority to address a violation of one of its orders, as has occurred here.” He noted that the federal government has “readily acknowledged” that it violated the emergency order to stay Lopez Belloza’s removal.

Stearns went on to say that he’d hoped to avoid finding the feds in civil contempt “by giving the government an opportunity to voluntarily correct what, all parties agree, was a mistake.” But, he said, the secretary of state has “regrettably, declined the invitation” to provide Belloza with an expedited student visa, therefore “requiring further intervention from this court.”

According to the ruling, the Trump administration has argued that returning Lopez Belloza would be futile because she would again be detained and sent to Honduras.

But Stearns came down hard on that position, saying, “Respondents have confused the prerogatives of the Executive with that of the Judiciary.” He said it’s up to an immigration court or a court of appeals to decide on Lopez Belloza’s future, and “not an issue for the Executive to prejudge and arrogate to itself, whatever stance it may choose to take in litigating the removal issue before a court of law.”

Lopez Belloza has been in the U.S. with her family since 2014. They arrived without legal status and applied for asylum but were denied. The girl was 11 at that time. The family continued to live in Texas.