Babson College business student Any Lucia Lopez Belloza at her high school graduation Any Lucia Lopez Belloza
Every so often, a story comes along that reminds us how far this country has drifted from its most basic ideals. The Thanksgiving-week deportation of Any Lucia Lopez Belloza — a 19-year-old first-year student at Babson College — is one of those stories.
Lopez Belloza wasn’t trying to flee the country. She wasn’t hiding. She wasn’t committing any crime. She was headed home to Texas for Thanksgiving break — a teenager on her way to surprise her family after her first semester of college. Instead, she was detained by immigration officials during a routine security check, shackled, and — in an act as astonishing as it is chilling — deported to Honduras.
Here’s the part that should alarm every American, regardless of politics: a federal judge had issued an emergency order explicitly barring her removal for 72 hours. The government ignored it. They deported her anyway.
THE TRUMP GOVERNMENT DEFIED A FEDERAL COURT ORDER TO DEPORT A BABSON STUDENT
Set aside your stance on immigration for a moment. A government agency defied a federal court order. That alone should set off alarm bells. In other words, her deportation was illegal, unconstitutional, and just another example of the cruelty and insanity of an administration that is out of control.
Now layer on the human reality. Lopez Belloza had lived in the United States since she was a child. She had no criminal record. She had earned a place at one of the country’s leading business schools. She was doing exactly what we claim to value: working hard, contributing, building a future.
Her deportation wasn’t about public safety. It wasn’t about national interest. It was about bureaucratic zeal — a mechanical, soulless enforcement culture that sees young people like her not as human beings but as case numbers to be closed.
DEMAND A FULL ACCOUNTING FROM THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
And the cost? The destruction of a young woman’s future. The terror inflicted on her family. The message sent to every immigrant student in America: don’t believe you’re safe, don’t believe your contributions matter, don’t believe the system will treat you with decency.
Higher education works because students trust that if they play by the rules — if they study, work, and strive — the country will give them a fair shot. This case shatters that trust.
Her family emigrated nearly 12 years ago because of the rampant crime and insecurity in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Her father, who works s a tailor, told The New York Times that he and his wife feared for their daughter as the news was filled every week “with deaths and murders,” he said. “That’s the reason we left.” The family had applied for asylum, he said, but it was denied, and they were never told they had to appeal to avoid a deportation order.
In his interview with the Times, López described his daughter as organized and studious. “She had that responsibility — of being the first to graduate from college and being an example to others,” said López, who had sewn her business suits for interviews and internships.
CRUEL, UNNECESSARY AND WRONG
We should demand a full accounting from the Trump administration for why a judge’s order was ignored. We should demand policy safeguards that prevent students from being ripped out of their lives without due process. And we should expect leadership from colleges and universities unwilling to watch their students live in fear.
America has always sold itself as a place where a young person can build a life through education and perseverance. Deporting a college freshman on her way home for Thanksgiving — in defiance of a court order — is not who we say we are. But it is who we are becoming unless we reverse course.
This decision was cruel. It was unnecessary. And it was wrong.
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