Judge slams Trump officials after bungled deportation: 'Time to make amends'
A Boston federal judge has handed down a stern rebuke to the Trump administration, ordering officials to bring back a 20-year-old Honduran college student who was deported in flagrant violation of a court order.
U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns gave the administration just two weeks to facilitate the return of Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, a Babson College freshman who was yanked from Boston's Logan Airport and flown to Honduras in November despite her lawyer securing a protection order the day before, Reuters reported.
The dramatic ruling came after the administration repeatedly refused to cooperate. The State Department called issuing Lopez Belloza a new student visa "unfeasible," while Immigration and Customs Enforcement flatly declined to help bring her back.
"Wisdom counsels that redemption may be found by acknowledging and fixing our own errors," Stearns wrote in his decision. "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 arrived in America at age 8 with her mother seeking asylum, said she had no idea she faced a deportation order. An ICE officer's failure to properly flag her protection order led to the bungled deportation, which government lawyers admitted was a "mistake."
She's now waiting in Honduras with her grandparents, hoping to return to her studies.