Trump administration makes unusual move with rare apology for mistakenly deporting 19-year-old college student

In an unusual and striking development, the Trump administration has publicly apologized in federal court for mistakenly deporting a 19‑year‑old U.S. college student — a rare acknowledgment of error amid the administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement policies.

The student, Any Lucia López Belloza, is a freshman at Babson College in Massachusetts who was deported to Honduras in November 2025 while traveling home to Texas to surprise her family for Thanksgiving. López Belloza, who has lived in the United States since age 8 after arriving from Honduras with her parents, had been unaware of a deportation order against her and insists she had no idea it existed. (Le Guardian)

What makes the case particularly unusual is a federal court order that explicitly barred her removal, issued on Nov. 21, 2025, directing authorities not to transport or deport her for at least 72 hours so she could pursue legal challenges. Despite that order, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) transferred López Belloza out of Massachusetts and ultimately deported her to Honduras two days later. (UNILAD)

At a hearing in Boston this week, Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Sauter formally apologized to both López Belloza and the court, describing the deportation as an “inadvertent mistake” by a single ICE officer who misunderstood the scope of the judge’s order and failed to activate internal systems to alert other agents. “On behalf of the government, we want to sincerely apologize,” Sauter told the judge, acknowledging the procedural error that led to the violation of the court’s directive. (UNILAD)

While the apology marks a rare moment of contrition from the Trump administration, it stops short of conceding that López Belloza’s underlying removal order was unlawful. Government lawyers argued in court that the deportation was technically permissible under existing immigration law because her 2016 removal order remained valid and an appeal had been dismissed in 2017. They also contended that the court lacked jurisdiction to intervene once López Belloza was moved out of state during her appeal. (AP News)

The legal battle is far from over. U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns described the case as a “tragic and preventable mistake” and gave the administration three weeks to “rectify the mistake,” recommending that authorities consider granting López Belloza a student visa to allow her return to the United States and continuation of her education. (Le Guardian)

Continue reading…