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The Lucia López Belloza had been away from her mother and father and two younger sisters since beginning her first semester at Babson College near Boston in August. An acquaintance gave her airfare so she could travel back to Austin and give them a surprise for the holiday gathering.

The 19-year-old business student was already at the boarding gate at Logan Airport when she was informed there was an “error” with her travel documents; when she went to customer service, she was handcuffed and arrested by what she understood to be two federal immigration agents.

“My thought was: ‘I was travelling to see my parents for Thanksgiving, and now the shock will be that I won’t be there,’” López said.

She was allowed a single call to her parents, who contacted a legal representative. The next day, a federal judge granted an injunction barring her removal from the US for at least 72 hours until her court proceedings could be reviewed.

But the following day, she was chained at her hands, feet and waist and expelled to her native Central American nation, a nation which she left at the age of seven and of which she has scarcely any memory.

The Dangerous Land She Was Sent Back To

Home to about 11 million people, Honduras is a primary transit corridors for drugs moved from the southern continent to its northern neighbor, and has spent decades grappling with the expanding influence of violent cartels that control whole districts, terrorize families and recruit young people. The country’s homicide rate is three times the global average.

Honduras is also in a political maelstrom, with a knife-edge national vote of which the ballot tally has dragged on for several days, with officials and experts criticising repeated attempts by the American leader, Donald Trump, to sway the electoral process.

“It never occurred to me I would experience this tragedy,” said López, who, since being sent away on 22 November, has been residing at her grandparents’ home in a major Honduran city, Honduras’s second-largest city.

An ‘Blatant Violation’ Says Legal Counsel

Her swift deportation – under 48 hours after she was detained at the airport – has drawn international scrutiny as one of the clearest examples of reported abuses under Trump’s large-scale removal policy.

“Her case is an legally dubious nightmare,” said her lawyer, the Massachusetts legal representative, who has defended other notable ICE detention cases.

“She wasn’t told why she was arrested,” added the attorney. “She was shackled like she was a dangerous felon, and then sent to Honduras with no chance to have a court hearing or even talk to an lawyer,” he added.

“If that isn’t unconstitutional, it is hard to imagine what would be,” he said.

Government Statement and Juridical Contradictions

Trump administration officials repeatedly said the primary target of arrests and deportations was individuals with serious records, but – like many others apprehended by ICE agents – the student had no criminal record. Being undocumented in the US is a civil matter but a civil infraction.

A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) representative said López, “an illegal alien”, was arrested because she “arrived in the country in 2014 and an immigration judge issued a removal order from the country in 2015, over 10 years ago. She has illegally stayed in the country since.”

Her lawyer said that neither she nor he was ever presented with the deportation order, and that even if it exists, a U.S. statute specifies that arrests in such cases can only take place within a three-month period after the order is issued – “not 10 years later,” argued the lawyer.

“Her mother came to the US because of how horrific the conditions were in Honduras, where criminal groups were killing and extorting people … They came here just like the Pilgrims centuries ago, for a brighter future and to escape persecution,” said the lawyer.

Life in San Pedro Sula

Honduras “faces a significant emigration issue”, said a social science researcher, a academic who researches deportees in Central America. In the past decade, about a fifth of Hondurans left the country, the majority heading to the US.

In 2014, when the student's family left Honduras, their home town, this urban center, was considered the most violent city of the world and their community, La Pradera, was one of the most dangerous.

“Young people and households that I have spoken with from there reported a very strong presence of criminal organizations who forced multiple families to leave,” noted the researcher.

Organized crime has a devastating impact on women, having been the primary cause of femicides in Honduras last year. Young women are especially vulnerable, making up the majority of female victims of sexual violence.

“And now you have a young woman back in a country where the risks are high to be a young woman, who was given no due process rights in the US,” she added.

Fighting for Justice and Future

Pomerleau said they are now waiting for an formal response from the US government to the judge as to why the emergency order barring her removal was ignored.

“It’s possible the administration will say: ‘Sorry, we made a mistake here, and we’re going to {bring her back|facilitate her return.’ That would be the sensible and just thing to do.

“But they might have a different approach, and that would necessitate me to make a forceful argument that the judicial ruling was disobeyed and seek a solution,” he explained.

“We will not cease until we she is returned”.

The student said she was trying to stay focused: “I am trying to be as positive and as strong as I can.

“I want to be able to move forward and perhaps resume my education, whether in Honduras or by finishing my term at the university. And one day, to be able to see my family and my family again,” she expressed.

Babson College, the institution she was enrolled at in Massachusetts, issued a public comment regarding her situation and saying that “our focus remains on supporting the student and their family”.

“My primary objective in the US was always to study,” said she. “What happened to me is unjust, because we went there to study and strive, to advance in search of that American dream so many of us had.”