US Judge Dismisses Case of Deported Student Who Refused Return Flight

A US judge who had ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the return of a college student deported to Honduras said on Friday that the "sad truth" was that her decision not to board a government-arranged flight meant her case must be dismissed.

 

Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, a 20-year-old freshman at Babson College in Massachusetts, refused on 27 February to board a flight arranged by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to bring her back to the United States, after the administration warned it would attempt to deport her again upon her return.

 

Lopez Belloza, who came to the United States from Honduras at the age of eight, has said she was unaware that a final removal order had been issued against her when she was 11.

 

Her lawyers had urged Boston-based US District Judge Richard Stearns to allow Lopez Belloza to continue the lawsuit she filed after being detained by immigration authorities at Boston's Logan International Airport in November while travelling to spend Thanksgiving with her family in Texas.

However, Stearns reaffirmed his earlier conclusion that he lacked jurisdiction over her detention because, by the time she filed her case on 21 November, she had already been flown by immigration authorities to Texas.

 

The only remaining basis for jurisdiction would have been to enforce an order issued by another judge minutes after Lopez Belloza’s lawsuit was filed, which barred her from being deported or transferred out of Massachusetts for 72 hours. Despite this order, she was flown from Texas to Honduras the following day.

 

A US government lawyer later apologised to Stearns for a "mistake" by an ICE officer, who failed to properly alert other officials about the judicial order.

 

On 13 February, Stearns ordered the administration to rectify the error by facilitating her return to the United States. The administration said last week that it would do so by having Lopez Belloza board an ICE flight from Honduras to Texas.

 

However, the administration also said ICE intended to move to deport her again upon arrival and had the authority to detain her. Lopez Belloza described the situation as a "nightmare," which led her to refuse the flight and remain in Honduras.

 

"The sad truth is that when Any declined the flight, she also waived this court's only remaining basis for jurisdiction," Stearns wrote.

 

Stearns added that had she boarded the plane, the judicial order barring her rapid deportation would have remained in effect, giving her "ample opportunity" to file a new case in Texas to challenge her detention.

 

Todd Pomerleau, Lopez Belloza’s lawyer, said he will appeal the decision.

 

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