Trump administration says detaining college student trying to surprise family was a ‘mistake’

Any Lucía López Belloza was detained at Boston’s airport in November and flown to Honduras two days later

The Trump administration apologized in court for a “mistake” in the deportation of a Massachusetts college student who was detained trying to fly home to surprise her family in Texas for Thanksgiving.

But the administration still argued that the federal government error should not affect her immigration case.

Any Lucía López Belloza, a 19-year-old freshman at Babson College in Wellesley, 15 miles west of Boston, was detained at the city’s airport on 20 November and flown to Honduras two days later. Her sudden removal came despite an emergency court order on 21 November directing the government to keep her in Massachusetts or elsewhere in the United States for at least 72 hours for legal processes.

López Belloza, whose family emigrated from Honduras to the US in 2014 when she was seven, is currently staying with grandparents and studying remotely. She is not detained and was recently visiting an aunt in El Salvador. In early December, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers reportedly turned up at her parents’ home in Austin, Texas and behaved aggressively towards the family but left without taking further action.