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Any Lucía López Belloza had been away from her mother and father and two little sisters since starting her first semester at a business college near the city of Boston in August. A generous individual provided her with plane tickets so she could fly home to Austin and give them a surprise for the holiday gathering.

The 19-year-old business student was already at the departure gate at Boston airport when she was informed there was an “problem” with her travel documents; when she went to the service desk, she was restrained and taken into custody by what she believed to be two Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

“My thought was: ‘I was travelling to surprise my parents for Thanksgiving, and now the shock will be that I am not coming,’” López said.

She was allowed a phone call to her parents, who contacted a legal representative. A day later, a federal judge granted an injunction prohibiting her removal from the US for at least 72 hours until her court proceedings could be examined.

But the following day, she was shackled at her hands, feet and waist and expelled to her native Honduras, a country which she left at the age of seven and of which she has scarcely any recollection.

A Dangerous Country López Was Deported Back To

Home to about eleven million people, Honduras is one of the main trafficking routes for narcotics moved from the southern continent to its northern neighbor, and has spent many years grappling with the expanding power of armed gangs that control whole districts, extort families and recruit young people. The nation's murder rate is three times the global average.

Honduras is also in a state of political turmoil, with a extremely close presidential election of which the ballot tally has dragged on for several days, with local politicians and experts criticising repeated attempts by the American leader, Donald Trump, to influence the electoral process.

“I never thought I would go through such an ordeal,” stated López, who, since being deported on November 22nd, has been residing at her relatives' house in San Pedro Sula, Honduras’s second-largest city.

A ‘Unconstitutional Horror Show’ Says Her Lawyer

Her swift expulsion – less than 48 hours after she was arrested at the airport – has drawn international scrutiny as one of the clearest examples of reported violations under Trump’s mass deportation policy.

“This situation is an legally dubious nightmare,” said her lawyer, the Massachusetts legal representative, who has represented other high-profile ICE detention cases.

“She received no explanation why she was detained,” added Pomerleau. “They restrained her like she was a dangerous felon, and then sent to Honduras with no chance to have a legal hearing or even talk to an lawyer,” he continued.

“If that isn’t a breach of rights, it is hard to imagine what would be,” Pomerleau concluded.

Official Statement and Legal Contradictions

Federal officials have stated the primary target of enforcement actions was dangerous criminals, but – like many others apprehended by immigration officers – the student had no criminal record. Lacking legal status in the US is a civil matter but a administrative violation.

A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson said the individual, “an undocumented individual”, was arrested because she “entered the country in 2014 and an court issued a removal order from the country in 2015, over 10 years ago. She has illegally stayed in the country since.”

Her attorney 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 a decade after the fact,” said Pomerleau.

“Her mum came to the US because of how horrific the conditions were in Honduras, where gang members were killing and extorting people … They came here just like the early settlers centuries ago, for a brighter future and to find safety,” explained the attorney.

Conditions in the Honduran City

Honduras “faces a large emigration problem”, said Elizabeth G Kennedy, a Soros justice fellow who studies returned migrants in Central America. In the last ten years, about a fifth of Hondurans have left the country, the majority heading to the US.

In that year, when López’s family left Honduras, their home town, this urban center, was considered the most violent city of the globe and their community, La Pradera, was one of the most violent.

“The children and families that I have spoken with from there reported a very strong presence of criminal organizations who compelled multiple families to flee,” said the researcher.

Organized crime has a devastating impact on women, having been the main driver of femicides in Honduras last year. Teenage girls are especially vulnerable, making up the majority of victims of assault.

“Now you have a young woman back in a country where it’s very dangerous to be a young woman, who was given no due process rights in the US,” she stated.

Pursuing for Justice and Hope

The student's lawyer said they are now awaiting an official explanation from the American authorities to the judge as to why the judge's order barring her deportation was ignored.

“It’s possible the administration will say: ‘We apologize, we erred here, and we’re going to {bring her back|facilitate her return.’ That would be the easy and reasonable thing to do.

“Yet they might have a alternative stance, and that’s going to require me to make a forceful argument that the court order was disobeyed and seek a solution,” he explained.

“We will not cease until we get her back”.

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

“My desire is to be able to move forward and perhaps continue my studies, whether in Honduras or by finishing my semester at the college. And eventually, to be able to reunite with my family and my family again,” she said.

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

“My primary objective in the US was always to pursue an education,” stated López. “This event to me isn’t fair, because we went there to study and strive, to move forward in search of that American dream so many of us dream of.”