BOSTON — A federal judge should order the Trump administration to develop a plan to bring back A Babson College student She was wrongly deported to Honduras just before Thanksgiving, her attorney said in a court document filed Friday.
A. Lucia Lopez Peloza, a 19-year-old student, was detained at the Boston airport on November 20 as she prepared to fly out to surprise her family in Texas for the holidays. She was flown to Honduras two days later. This happened despite an emergency court order to keep her in the United States for at least 72 hours. Government lawyers admitted in court that they had violated the judge’s order, but said the court lacked jurisdiction.
“Petitioner is not asking this court to micromanage foreign affairs or dictate outcomes beyond the government’s authority,” her attorney Todd Pomerleau wrote. “Instead, the petition calls for a specific, transparent, and practical process: requiring the government to identify and pursue steps available to it — through components of the Department of Homeland Security and, if necessary, in coordination with the Department of State — to return the petitioner to the United States.”
Pomerleau is asking the judge to order the government to develop a plan within 14 days.
Among the proposed scenarios is that Peloza be returned to the United States “for the limited and urgent purpose of restoring status quo and allowing the petitioner to pursue appropriate immigration proceedings.” She could also be allowed to continue pursuing a suspended T visa, granted to those who have been subjected to human trafficking. Another option is a student visa, although Pomerleau noted that “usually requires consular processing and will be complicated by the presence of a final order of removal and related inadmissibility issues.”
A Department of Homeland Security spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
López Peloza, whose family immigrated from Honduras to the United States in 2014, is currently staying with his grandparents and studying remotely. She is not in detention and was recently visiting her aunt in El Salvador.
Her case is the latest involving a deportation that was carried out despite a court order. Kelmar Abrego Garcia He was deported to El Salvador despite a ruling that should have prevented this. The Trump administration initially made efforts to return him to the United States, but eventually complied after the US Supreme Court took up the matter. Last June, a Guatemalan man identified as OCG was arrested. He returned to the United States After the judge found that his deportation from Mexico “likely lacked any semblance of due process.”
Pomerleau referred to both cases in Friday’s court filing.
At a federal court hearing Tuesday in Boston, the government argued that the court lacked jurisdiction because Lopez-Pelosa’s lawyers filed their lawsuit several hours after she arrived in Texas while she was en route out of the country. But the government also admitted that it violated the judge’s order.
the government She confirms that her deportation was legal Because an immigration judge ordered the removal of Lopez-Peloza and her mother in 2016, and the Board of Immigration Appeals denied their appeal in 2017. Prosecutors said she could have filed additional appeals or asked to stay the deportation.
Pomerleau responded by saying she was deported in clear violation of the order issued on November 21, and said the government’s actions deprived her of due process. “I was hoping the government would show some leniency and bring her back,” he said. “They violated the court order.”
US District Judge Richard Stearns said he appreciated the government’s admission of the error, calling it a “tragic” bureaucratic error. But he seemed to rule out accusing the government of contempt of court, noting that the violation did not appear to be intentional. He also questioned whether he had jurisdiction in the case, and appeared to side with the government in concluding that the court order was served several hours after it was sent to Texas.