College student deported during Thanksgiving trip could’ve fought removal as a kid, US says
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A college student was deported while in Massachusetts. Trying to visit family for Thanksgiving According to a government lawyer, he missed multiple opportunities to fight a deportation order issued when he was a young child.
Lucia Lopez Belloza, a 19-year-old freshman at Babson College, flew to Honduras two days after being detained at the Boston airport on Nov. 20, despite a court order to remain in Massachusetts on Nov. 21.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Sauter responded to the lawsuit Wednesday, saying the Boston judge who made the decision did not have jurisdiction because Lopez Belloza was already in Texas at the time about to head out of the country.
His lawyer argues that he never knew about the long-standing deportation order, let alone how to appeal it, and that Immigration and Customs Enforcement made it nearly impossible to locate him while he was being deported.
The U.S. attorney said that although Lopez Belloza’s case could be transferred to Texas, that wasn’t necessary because the government had already released him from custody in Honduras.
“ICE did not ‘spirit’ Petitioner to an unknown location or fail to disclose his whereabouts following his arrest on November 20,” Sauter wrote. He said he could call his family that afternoon to let them know where he could petition, and that his transfer to Texas was not to hide his location but to prepare for deportation.
After an initial search of the home, ICE offered no meaningful way to find him, his attorney, Todd Pomerleau, said. He said the ICE database showed he was in Massachusetts on November 20, that there was no information on his whereabouts the next day, that no one answered the phone at the local field office, and that calls to the office were hung up after an automated message.
“We really have to guess not only where our client is, but also why he’s being held, because they’re not giving us any information,” he said in a phone interview Friday.
Lopez Belloza, who is currently staying with his grandparents, came to the United States in 2014 when he was 8 years old and was ordered removed a few years later. His lawyer said the order was made “without his personal knowledge”.
A judge ordered the removal of Lopez Belloza and her mother in March 2016, and the Board of Immigration Appeals denied the appeal in February 2017, according to the government. Sauter wrote that he could appeal to the Fifth Circuit, request reconsideration or ask ICE to stay the removal.
Pomerleau argues that these options are pointless because Lopez Belloza is a child and unaware of their existence. Another lawyer told his parents “not to worry about it.” “He had all these ways to earn, but he was living his life completely blindfolded.”
The court gave Pomerleau until December 11 to submit a formal response. He said his client is still traumatized but is working with Babson College to take final exams and finish his freshman year remotely.
“She is an extraordinary young woman,” he said, “and we will make sure she continues to have a bright future.”
