Trump Administration Apologizes for ICE Wrongfully Detaining College Student

 

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is under scrutiny after the Trump administration admitted it wrongly deported a college student trying to visit her family, and apologized for the mistake.  Any Lucia López Belloza, a 19‑year‑old Babson College freshman, was detained at Boston Logan Airport in November as she tried to fly to Texas to surprise her family for Thanksgiving.​Within about 48 hours she was flown to Honduras, even though a federal judge had issued an emergency order instructing the government to keep her in the U.S. for at least 72 hours.

​The government’s apology

• In a Boston federal court hearing, a Justice Department lawyer said “on behalf of the government, we want to sincerely apologize,” calling it an inadvertent mistake by a single ICE officer who misunderstood the court order.​

• The officer failed to activate an alert system and did not notify ICE officials in Texas that the removal had to be halted, later admitting he wrongly believed the order no longer applied once she left Massachusetts.​

The student’s response

• López Belloza has said she appreciates the apology and accepts that the officer admitted his error, but also described feeling that her life was “completely changed” by a mistake that led to her sudden deportation.​

• Her lawyer argues an apology is not enough without a way for her to return, and a federal judge has called her situation a “tragic” administrative error that was not her fault.​

Legal and political fallout

• The administration maintains the deportation was legally justified because an immigration judge ordered her and her mother removed years earlier and their appeal was denied.​

• Members of Congress from Texas and Massachusetts are demanding answers and pressing the government to allow her back, saying the case underscores deeper problems in how the immigration crackdown is being carried out.

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