Francis Lopez looks out the window of his Hornsby Bend home.
Handout/Courtesy Kristin Etter.
Federal immigration agents on Sunday morning appear to have attempted to arrest the Austin-based father of Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, the 19-year-old college freshman who was arrested at the Boston airport and promptly deported last month while trying to return home to Austin to surprise her family for Thanksgiving, according to an attorney for the family.
Kristin Etter, a lawyer with the Texas Immigration Law Council, said Francis Lopez was washing his car in the alley behind the family’s home, on Austin’s eastern outskirts, and supervising his 2-year-old daughter when a plain white pick-up truck that had already driven around the block pulled up to the house.
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Lopez grabbed his scurrying toddler and motioned to the truck with his hand to apologize for her. That’s when an individual wearing a green U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement vest got out of the truck and began running toward Lopez, Etter said.
The individual, whose vest also was marked with “ERO,” which stands for Enforcement and Removal Operations, appeared to be armed, Etter said.
“It was clear they were targeting him,” Etter said, adding that she has not been able to confirm that it was an ICE agent.
ICE declined to comment and referred the American-Statesman to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, a 19-year-old college student at Babson College, was detained by ICE while trying to make a surprise trip to see her family in Austin. Within about 48 hours of her arrest, the agency deported her to Honduras.
Courtesy of Todd Pomerleau
The alleged arrest attempt came after Lopez, 38, spoke to numerous media outlets about his daughter’s Nov. 20 arrest and subsequent deportation. The family brought Lopez Belloza to the United States as a child from Honduras eleven years ago, and eventually settled in Austin. Lopez Belloza had left Austin earlier this fall to study at the brick-rowed Babson College, a Massachusetts school known for its prestigious business program.
The government said in court filings that Lopez Belloza and her mother had deportation orders, and that their immigration proceedings had ended in 2017. They deported Lopez Belloza just over 50 hours after her arrest, despite a stay from a federal judge. The government has argued in court filings that the order was moot since it had moved Lopez Belloza to Texas hours before the judge issued the stay in Massachusetts. It’s an argument that legal scholars told the Statesman the case reflects a broader pattern of fast-tracked removals under the Trump administration designed to circumvent the courts.
Lopez Belloza’s attorney, Todd Pomerleau, has lambasted the agency’s handling of the case, calling it nefarious and illegal.
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On Sunday, Lopez evaded the alleged agent by running into his backyard and closing the latch of the thin wooden fence behind him. He then locked himself in his house as the individual worked to open the gate.
“He didn’t identify himself,” Etter said of the man. “He didn’t tell him to ‘stop.’ It happened very quickly.”
For the next two hours, agents — including more who arrived after the initial pursuit — waited around the family’s house, pacing the backyard, Etter said. Lopez, his wife, and the couple’s two youngest children — both U.S. citizens — braced themselves.
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But the purported agents never tried to enter the house, Etter said. They did not attempt to knock on any door or leave any papers. Eventually, they left.