{"id":182117,"date":"2026-02-27T00:37:36","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T00:37:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/182117\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T00:37:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T00:37:36","slug":"u-s-says-it-will-detain-deported-austin-student-again-if-returned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/182117\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. says it will detain deported Austin student again if returned"},"content":{"rendered":"

A U.S. District Court judge ordered the federal government to return deported Austin college student Any Luc\u00eda L\u00f3pez Belloza<\/a> by Friday \u2014 but officials said Thursday they would do so only to immediately detain and deport her again.<\/p>\n

The American-Statesman obtained a copy of the Thursday afternoon court filing outlining the government\u2019s position, which was submitted\u00a0a day before the judge\u2019s deadline<\/a> for L\u00f3pez Belloza, a 20-year-old freshman college student at Babson College, to be returned from her native Honduras.\u00a0<\/p>\n

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested L\u00f3pez Belloza during Thanksgiving week last year as she attempted to board a flight at Boston\u2019s Logan International Airport to surprise her Austin-based parents. The agency then quickly deported her, moving her to Texas and then out of the country in two days, despite a federal judge in Massachusetts pausing her removal. Government lawyers have since argued<\/a> that because she was moved to Texas so quickly, the Massachusetts court where\u00a0L\u00f3pez Belloza\u2019s case has played out lacks jurisdiction over the proceedings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns, who is presiding over the case, has previously agreed with the government that his court lacks jurisdiction over the habeas corpus motion that L\u00f3pez Belloza\u2019s attorney filed to have her released from ICE custody. But he has ruled that the court can review the case for contempt of court and to seek \u201ca remedy\u201d for L\u00f3pez Belloza.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s Thursday filing sought to dismiss the initial habeas corpus motion and to vacate her return order. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Petitioner was returned to the United States to the \u2018status quo\u2019 that existed prior to her removal, Petitioner still would be subject to a final order of removal and ICE would be authorized to detain and remove Petitioner pursuant to such order,\u201d the filing said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

L\u00f3pez Belloza\u2019s attorney, Todd Pomerleau, expressed anger Thursday afternoon over the government\u2019s decision.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re playing games,\u201d Pomerleau told the Statesman by text. \u201cWe will vigorously oppose this motion.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pomerleau said that his client would not board a plane to return to the United States if the government moved to immediately detain her.\u00a0<\/p>\n

U.S. Rep. Greg\u00a0Casar, a Democrat from Austin, also condemned the government\u2019s filing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cUnacceptable. Outrageous,” Casar said. \u201cAny should be allowed to return to school in Boston immediately. We\u2019ll keep fighting until she\u2019s home.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Department of Justice declined to comment. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

L\u00f3pez Belloza\u2019s mother brought her to the United States when she was 8 years old. The family \u2014 L\u00f3pez Belloza, her father, mother and two U.S.-born younger siblings \u2014 eventually settled in Austin, where she lived until she left for college.<\/p>\n

The Department of Homeland Security has said it acted on a 2017 removal order for L\u00f3pez Belloza and has denied that it acted improperly when it removed her despite the pause issued by a federal judge. However, government lawyers said in federal court last month that ICE agents made a mistake by not following the court\u2019s pause on the deportation, a statement that prompted Stearns to order the government to return\u00a0L\u00f3pez Belloza to the United States \u201cto make amends.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A U.S. District Court judge ordered the federal government to return deported Austin college student Any Luc\u00eda L\u00f3pez…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":{"0":"post-182117","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}