Any Lucia Lopez Belloza was deported to her native Honduras after attempting to board a flight from Boston to Texas to surprise her family for Thanksgiving, ABC News reported. A federal judge blocked the 19-year-old college student's deportation, but she was removed from the U.S. anyway.
Lopez Bella had entered the U.S. illegally as an 8-year-old with her family. While trying to board her flight to her Texas home to see her relatives a decade later, Lopez Belloza was singled out by airport authorities because of the deportation order.
Her attorney, Todd Pomerleau, said his client was detained and arrested at the airport over the order. A federal judge ruled that the government could not remove Lopez Belloza from the U.S. or anywhere outside of Massachusetts, but the government ignored that edict and moved Lopez Belloza to Texas and sent her Honduras the following day.
"She thought she was going to go home, see her family, fly back, take her finals, and now she's sitting in Honduras," Pomerleau said. While the establishment media is using her story to show the cruelty of President Donald Trump's Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, it's not the whole story.
On this surface, this is a tragic story about government officials gone rogue and the plight of a young woman on her way to a bright future. Instead, it's another illustration of the dangers of ignoring immigration enforcement for decades and the human cost of reversing course when the need arises.
The order to deport Lopez Belloza was issued in 2015, but the failure to act allowed her to plant roots in a place she shouldn't have been allowed to enter in the first place. Moreover, as Mass Daily News noted in a post to X on Thursday, the media spin about this unfortunate situation ignores some glaring realities.
The Boston Globe captioned Lopez Belloza's story as an unfortunate situation for someone who "had received a scholarship to study in Massachusetts, and dreamed of opening a tailor shop with her dad," the Globe claimed. "When immigration agents detained her at Logan airport, everything changed," the outlet said ominously.
Mass Daily News noted that what the Boston Globe left out decimates two major talking points on the issue. "Any Lucia Lopez Belloza is an illegal immigrant with a deportation order from 10 years ago. The president 10 years ago? Barack Obama," the social media post said.
And the part that Boston Globe didn’t put in their headline:
Any Lucia Lopez Belloza is an illegal immigrant with a deportation order from 10 years ago.
The president 10 years ago?
Barack Obama. https://t.co/Y6TkaI7MRD
— Mass Daily News (@MassDailyNews) November 27, 2025
Illegal immigration has created so many pitfalls, but so has the legal immigration system. As part of his Thanksgiving post to Truth Social, Trump announced his plan to "permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system" to alleviate some of the problems caused by such an influx.
The president blamed former President Joe Biden for allowing illegal immigraiton as well as "Sleepy Joe Biden’s Autopen" letting in migrants who burden the federal government and social safety net. Trump wants to "remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States, or is incapable of loving our Country, end all Federal benefits and subsidies to noncitizens of our Country, denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquility, and deport any Foreign National who is a public charge, security risk, or non-compatible with Western Civilization," Trump wrote.
"These goals will be pursued with the aim of achieving a major reduction in illegal and disruptive populations, including those admitted through an unauthorized and illegal Autopen approval process. Only REVERSE MIGRATION can fully cure this situation. Other than that, HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL, except those that hate, steal, murder, and destroy everything that America stands for — You won’t be here for long!" Trump concluded.
Immigration in the U.S. is a mess, thanks to decades of poor leadership from Democrats and spineless Republicans. Trump now has many problems to sort out because of it, and he's not afraid to do that even if it creates some unfortunate situations, as it did for Lopez Belloza, or outrages opponents.
