BOSTON — U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns gave the Trump administration 21 days Friday to explain how it will remedy the mistaken deportation of Babson College freshman Any Lucia Lopez Belloza and urged officials to consider issuing her a student visa. Stearns said the government can still correct what he called a “tragic (and preventable) mistake” after Lopez Belloza was flown to Honduras despite an emergency court order meant to block her removal, Jan. 16, 2026.
Stearns said the “simplest solution” would be for the State Department to grant a nonimmigrant student visa so Lopez Belloza can keep studying while her immigration status is addressed in the proper courts. He also raised the prospect of ordering her return if officials do not act, Reuters reported.
Lopez Belloza, 19, was detained Nov. 20 at Boston’s Logan International Airport as she prepared to fly to Texas to surprise her family for Thanksgiving. A judge issued an emergency 72-hour order the next day aimed at keeping her in Massachusetts or elsewhere in the United States, but she had already been transferred to Texas and was deported to Honduras on Nov. 22, The Associated Press reported.
Government lawyers have said the violation stemmed from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement error in handling the stay order, while still arguing Lopez Belloza’s removal was legally authorized because of earlier immigration proceedings. Stearns said he lacked jurisdiction to keep hearing the underlying case because the court challenge was filed after she had already been moved out of Massachusetts.
Lopez Belloza’s attorney, Todd Pomerleau, asked the court to require a concrete, time-bound plan for her return and noted that a student visa typically requires consular processing and could be complicated by a final removal order, GBH News reported.
Student visa option and what happens next
A student visa is generally the route used by foreign nationals who plan to study full time in the United States, most commonly under the F or M categories. The State Department’s overview of the student visa process says applicants usually must secure admission to a school and apply through a U.S. embassy or consulate abroad.
Stearns ordered the administration to state, within 21 days, what remedy it will pursue — whether that is a student visa or another mechanism that restores Lopez Belloza to the position she was in before the deportation. His order makes the student visa option the clearest pathway he has put forward, while also signaling the court could consider stronger steps if the government declines to act.
Older cases show courts have demanded remedies
The Babson case echoes earlier disputes in which removals went forward despite legal protections and judges later demanded a remedy. In April 2025, the Supreme Court largely left in place an order directing federal officials to “facilitate” the return of a Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador, as described by SCOTUSblog. In June 2025, a Guatemalan man identified in court papers as O.C.G. landed back in the United States after a judge found his removal from Mexico likely “lacked any semblance of due process,” AP reported.
For Lopez Belloza, Stearns’ deadline forces a near-term decision on whether the government will use the student visa approach he outlined — or face a more direct court order aimed at correcting the deportation error.
