The Trump administration was ordered Friday to facilitate the return to the U.S. of the 19-year-old school pupil who was deported over Thanksgiving regardless of a court docket order blocking her removing.
U.S. District Decide Richard Stearns directed the federal government to facilitate the return of Any Lucia Lopez Belloza inside 14 days.
“Knowledge counsels that redemption could also be discovered by acknowledging and fixing our personal errors,” Stearns wrote in his eight-page order. “On this unlucky case, the federal government commendably admits that it did flawed. Now it’s time for the federal government to make amends.”
Lopez Belloza, who entered the U.S. from Honduras when she was 8 years previous, was detained at a Boston airport by immigration authorities who informed her she had a order of removing, which her lawyer stated she was unaware of. Inside hours of her arrest, a federal decide ordered the federal government to not take away the 19-year-old from the U.S., however she was nonetheless deported to Honduras.
After Lopez Belloza’s removing, Decide Stearns stated he was giving the federal government a chance to “rectify the error,” and really helpful that she be issued a pupil visa.
However final week, U.S. Legal professional Leah Foley argued in a court docket submitting that the secretary of state lacks the legal authority to unilaterally situation visas. Foley stated that if Lopez Belloza have been returned to the U.S., she would stay topic to speedy detention and removing primarily based on a closing deportation order.
Any Lopez Belloza was deported to Honduras
Courtesy Any Lopez Belloza
In his order Friday, Decide Stearns stated authorities officers have “readily acknowledged that they violated the Emergency Decide’s order of removing once they eliminated Any from the USA on November 22, 2025.”
“The court docket’s hope was to keep away from discovering Respondents in civil contempt for that violation by giving the federal government a chance to voluntarily right what, all events agree, was a mistake,” he wrote. “The Secretary of State has, regrettably, declined the invitation, requiring additional intervention from this court docket.”
The decide stated an immigration court docket ought to decide “the extent of Any’s due course of rights and the legality of her removing.”
Decide Stearns ordered the federal government to file a standing report by subsequent week, outlying the steps they’ve taken to facilitate Lopez Belloza’s return to the USA.
