Wrongfully Deported Student Opts Not to Return to U.S.

A Babson College freshman who was wrongfully deported in November decided not to return to the U.S. out of fear that she would be detained a second time upon her arrival, The New York Times reports.  

A federal judge had previously ordered the Trump administration to bring Any Lucia López Belloza back to the States after finding she was deported by mistake. The deadline for her return was Friday, and the government arranged for a flight from Honduras. But while Immigration and Customs Enforcement had apologized for Belloza’s deportation, the State Department refused to grant her a student visa as the court had recommended.  

Belloza’s lawyers told the Times that she opted not to board the plane because she worried that without the visa, ICE would turn around and deport her again.

The lawyers cited a Thursday court filing from the Justice Department that said ICE intended to effectuate Belloza’s “final order of removal after she is returned.”

Belloza recounted the experience in a video call with reporters, saying ICE officers tried to convince her to board the plane.

“An officer told me again and again that I will be released once I landed in the United States,” she said. 

“I want to keep contributing to the country I call home,” Belloza later added. “Instead, I’m being treated as if I do not belong, as if my life does not matter.”