The Trump administration was ordered Friday to facilitate the return to the U.S. of the 19-year-old college student who was deported over Thanksgiving despite a court order blocking her removal.
U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns directed the government to facilitate the return of Any Lucia Lopez Belloza within 14 days.
“Wisdom counsels that redemption may be found by acknowledging and fixing our own errors,” Stearns wrote in his eight-page order. “In this unfortunate case, the government commendably admits that it did wrong. Now it is time for the government to make amends.”
Lopez Belloza, who entered the U.S. from Honduras when she was 8 years old, was detained at a Boston airport by immigration authorities who told her she had a order of removal, which her lawyer said she was unaware of. Within hours of her arrest, a federal judge ordered the government not to remove the 19-year-old from the U.S., but she was nonetheless deported to Honduras.
After Lopez Belloza’s removal, Judge Stearns said he was giving the government an opportunity to “rectify the mistake,” and recommended that she be issued a student visa.
But last week, U.S. Attorney Leah Foley argued in a court filing that the secretary of state lacks the legal authority to unilaterally issue visas. Foley said that if Lopez Belloza were returned to the U.S., she would remain subject to immediate detention and removal based on a final deportation order.
Any Lopez Belloza was deported to Honduras
Courtesy Any Lopez Belloza
In his order Friday, Judge Stearns said government officials have “readily acknowledged that they violated the Emergency Judge’s order of removal when they removed Any from the United States on November 22, 2025.”
“The court’s hope was to avoid finding Respondents in civil contempt for that violation by giving the government an opportunity to voluntarily correct what, all parties agree, was a mistake,” he wrote. “The Secretary of State has, regrettably, declined the invitation, requiring further intervention from this court.”
The judge said an immigration court should determine “the extent of Any’s due process rights and the legality of her removal.”
Judge Stearns ordered the government to file a status report by next week, outlying the steps they have taken to facilitate Lopez Belloza’s return to the United States.