Ema Alice: A college student deported while attempting to catch a flight home for Thanksgiving break questioned why the Trump administration was “targeting” people like her.
Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, 19, was detained by immigration authorities on Nov. 20 at Boston Logan International Airport. She was planning to surprise her family in Texas for the holiday.
“Why is he getting people who are living in the United States working day and night, people, people like me, who are in college, doing their dreams, having an education?” she asked in an interview with ABC published Thursday.
Lopez Belloza, an immigrant from Honduras and a Babson College student, is one of half a million migrants who have been deported during President Trump’s second stint in office.
Lopez Belloza, who entered the U.S. as a child, was sent back to Honduras days after being detained despite a federal judge’s order not to remove her from the U.S. and not to transfer her outside of Massachusetts, according to documents obtained by ABC.
“It feels unfair,” Lopez Belloza told the outlet. “If there was an order, then why did everything happen to me so fast, within three days?”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Lopez Belloza’s deportation was justified because of a past order for removal issued in 2015.
“This illegal alien entered the country in 2014 and an immigration judge ordered her removed from the country in 2015, over 10 years ago. She has illegally stayed in the country since,” a DHS spokesperson told ABC.
“Illegal aliens should use the CBP Home app to fly home for free and receive $1,000 stipend, while preserving the option to return the legal, right way,” they added. “It’s an easy choice leave voluntarily and receive $1,000 check or stay and wait till you are fined $1,000 day, arrested, and deported without a possibility to return legally.” Lopez Belloza told ABC that, prior to her arrest, she was living the American dream. “My parents … they work so hard to be able to send me to college,” she said. “And I got really good financial aid. I really got a good college that basically wanted me, and I wanted them.” “My dream was for me to be in college, fulfill not only mine but also my family dream … for me to be in college, be one of the first ones in my family to be there,” she said. “It was like … wow … I’m doing this. It’s happening.”
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