Trump administration ripped a college student from her flight and sent her back overseas, now they think one single word fixes the damage done

The Trump administration offered a formal apology this week during court proceedings after officials deported a college student last year who was trying to fly home for Thanksgiving break, according to The Hill. This whole ordeal is truly awful for the student involved.

The student, Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, attended Babson College and was detained at Boston Logan International Airport on November 20 before boarding a flight. She was just trying to surprise her family in Texas for the holiday, but instead, she was snapped up and sent back to Honduras just days later.

What makes this situation particularly egregious is that the deportation happened despite a clear order from a judge. A ruling on November 21 stated that Lopez Belloza needed to remain in Massachusetts, or somewhere else in the United States, for at least 72 hours. However, the order was completely disregarded.

That’s a pretty worrying interpretation of the law, if you ask me

It turns out the employee responsible for the removal failed to notify officials in Port Isabel, Texas, that Lopez Belloza’s removal needed to be canceled. You’d think that a judge’s order would be a top priority, but apparently, bureaucratic wires got crossed in the worst possible way. In fact, the officer involved admitted he didn’t think the judge’s order was applicable once Lopez Belloza was physically outside of the state of Massachusetts.

During the hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Sauter delivered the government’s official statement. “On behalf of the government, we want to sincerely apologize,” Sauter said, adding that the employee understands he “made a mistake.” Sauter went on to explain that the removal was the result of “an inadvertent mistake by one individual, not a willful act of violating a court order.”

It’s hard to swallow that an apology and the explanation of an “inadvertent mistake” can fix the damage done to this young woman’s life and education. Despite offering that apology, the Trump administration is maintaining that Lopez Belloza’s deportation was actually lawful. They are citing a 2016 decision from an immigration judge that originally ordered the removal of both her and her mother. An appeal filed a year later was dismissed.

Lopez Belloza’s lawyer, Todd Pomerleau, was clearly frustrated by the administration’s actions. “I was hoping the government would show some leniency and bring her back,” Pomerleau said. “They violated a court order.”

U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns weighed in on the matter, calling Lopez Belloza the victim of a “tragic” bureaucratic mistake. Stearns acknowledged that while it might not be the fault of any single person acting maliciously, the student definitely bore the consequences. “It might not be anybody’s fault, but she was the victim of it,” Stearns noted, though he did offer a pathway forward, stating that Lopez Belloza could reenter the country after securing a student visa.

For the student herself, the whole experience left her questioning the motives behind the deportation of international students, among other groups who face threats of a similar nature. Furthermore, the administration is setting some dangerous precedents by stripping citizenship from naturalized Americans.

When she was removed, Lopez Belloza expressed confusion and disappointment. “Why is [President Trump] 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. “It feels unfair. If there was an order, then why did everything happen to me so fast, within three days?”