Babson College student Any Lucia Lopez Belloca, 19, was deported to Honduras after attempting to fly home for Thanksgiving. In a Zoom interview from rural Honduras, she shared her story, detailing her plans to surprise her parents in Texas. Lopez-Belloca, a freshman at Babson College, was detained at Logan Airport on November 20th by ICE agents and informed of a removal order for the first time. She was then sent to Honduras, where she lives with grandparents she hasn't seen in 12 years and barely knows. Lopez-Belloca expressed her dream of attending college and becoming the first in her family to achieve this milestone, only to have it abruptly halted. Her lawyer, Todd Pomerleau, criticized federal officials for withholding crucial information, including the fact that Lopez-Belloca was unaware she had a lawyer and that her family had applied for asylum. According to court documents, Lopez-Belloca entered the U.S. with her family through Mexico in 2014 at the age of 8 and was released the next day on personal recognizance. The government claims she has a removal order from 2015, but her attorney disputes this, arguing that she was unaware of any such order and that there should have been discretion given her young age at the time.
