BOSTON — Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, a Babson College freshman mistakenly deported to Honduras, refused to board a government-arranged flight back to the United States Friday as a court-ordered deadline for her return closed in. Lopez Belloza said she backed away after learning federal officials planned to detain her on arrival, a move her lawyers say turns a judge’s order into a deportation standoff, Feb. 27, 2026.
The Trump administration says arranging travel satisfies the requirement to “facilitate” her return, but Any Lucia Lopez Belloza’s attorneys argue the government cannot fix an admitted error by flying her back only to restart detention and removal proceedings before courts can sort out the underlying immigration fight.
Why Any Lucia Lopez Belloza refused the ICE flight
Any Lucia Lopez Belloza said she was told Thursday that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement-arranged flight would take her from Honduras to Texas, raising hopes she would finally be back on U.S. soil. Those hopes faded, she said, when court filings indicated the government could take her into custody immediately and pursue a rapid, second deportation under an older removal order. Reuters reported that she said an ICE officer repeatedly assured her she would be released upon landing, even as government filings suggested otherwise.
“I’m not stopping until she’s back here, but she’s not coming back in handcuffs,” her lawyer, Todd Pomerleau, said, arguing she should be able to return without being treated as a flight risk or a prisoner while the legal questions are litigated.
What the court ordered — and what the government says it means
The confrontation is rooted in a Feb. 13 order by U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns, who directed the administration to facilitate Any Lucia Lopez Belloza’s return after federal prosecutors acknowledged that immigration authorities removed her in violation of a court order. WBUR reported that Stearns told the government it was time to “make amends,” after weeks of litigation over how — or whether — the error would be remedied.
In filings and public statements, the government has argued she remains subject to a final order of removal issued when she was a child and that “status quo” means ICE can detain her to execute that order. Any Lucia Lopez Belloza’s legal team counters that “status quo” should mean restoring her chance to live and study in the United States while courts decide whether the old order is valid, enforceable or subject to review.
How the deportation error happened
Any Lucia Lopez Belloza was detained at Boston’s Logan International Airport on Nov. 20, 2025, while trying to fly to Texas to surprise her family for Thanksgiving. Even after a judge issued an emergency order temporarily barring her removal and transfer, she was flown to Honduras within about two days — a move federal prosecutors later described as a mistake, according to The Associated Press’ reporting Friday.
Since then, she has been studying remotely from Honduras and staying with relatives while her lawyers try to navigate both the court system and the practical realities of getting her back to the United States. Federal officials have emphasized that her case involves long-running immigration proceedings and that she has been subject to removal for years, even if she disputes that she understood her status at the time.
In a statement carried by NBC Boston, the Department of Homeland Security said ICE attempted to facilitate her return but she did not show up for the scheduled flight and did not respond to contact attempts. Her lawyers say the core issue is not logistics but conditions: she does not want to re-enter the country only to be detained and potentially deported again before her claims are heard.
Continuity: earlier coverage of Any Lucia Lopez Belloza’s case
As the dispute has unfolded, it has moved from an airport detention to a broader argument about court orders, agency discretion and what “fixing” an unlawful deportation looks like in practice:
- Nov. 26, 2025: ABC News detailed her detention at Logan and her transfer out of Massachusetts despite a federal judge’s order blocking her removal.
- Dec. 8, 2025: The Guardian reported that her family said immigration agents later appeared at their Texas home, deepening fears about pressure tactics.
- Jan. 16, 2026: In an interview with The Associated Press, Any Lucia Lopez Belloza described her detention and deportation as traumatic and said a government apology did not resolve her uncertainty.
What happens next
Any Lucia Lopez Belloza remains in Honduras while her attorneys press the courts to clarify what compliance looks like — and whether the government can detain her the moment she returns under a judicial order meant to remedy an error. The administration, meanwhile, has signaled it will keep arguing that she is already subject to a final removal order and that its authority to detain her is unchanged by the court’s instruction to facilitate her travel.
Until a judge or appellate court resolves that clash, the fight is less a single plane ticket than a question of legal posture: whether Any Lucia Lopez Belloza can come back to continue her education without being immediately pulled back into custody, or whether the government’s “return” offer is, effectively, a one-way trip into another detention and deportation attempt.
