Lawyers for a Babson College student deported to Honduras nearly a year ago argued Monday before the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston for her return to the United States and for a federal court in Massachusetts to reconsider her case.

Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, 20, was detained by federal immigration agents at Logan Airport in November 2025 while en route to Texas to visit her family for Thanksgiving. She was swiftly deported to Honduras despite a habeas corpus petition filed by her attorneys in Massachusetts that sought her release and challenged the legality of her detention. The petition had prompted a temporary order preventing her transfer or deportation, but the government later transferred her to Texas and deported her, conceding an agent had misread the court ruling.

Lopez Belloza and her legal team contend she was unaware of a removal order issued against her in 2017, when she was 11 years old. She had entered the United States with her mother in 2014 and was attending Babson College on a scholarship at the time of her deportation. Since then, she has been unable to return physically to the U.S. and has continued her studies remotely while living with grandparents in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.

Following her removal, a federal judge in Massachusetts, Richard G. Stearns, ordered the government to facilitate Lopez Belloza’s return. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arranged a flight from Honduras but indicated she would be detained in Texas and likely deported again upon arrival. Lopez Belloza declined to board the plane, fearing immediate re-detention and removal. Subsequently, Stearns dismissed the case, citing a loss of jurisdiction after she refused to return.

During Monday’s oral arguments, Lopez Belloza’s attorneys urged the appeals court to allow the Massachusetts district court to resume consideration of her claims, arguing that her case had “never gotten off the ground.” They claimed the government’s actions had prevented her from having a fair hearing while also violating court orders.

Government attorneys countered that Lopez Belloza had no right to be in the country and that ICE’s initial detention and transfer were lawful, given she was no longer held in Massachusetts when the habeas corpus petition was filed. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Sauter noted that Lopez Belloza was able to notify family members of her detention at the Burlington ICE facility on the day of her arrest, suggesting her attorneys could have acted sooner.

The three-judge panel expressed skepticism on several points. Judge Gustavo A. Gelpí questioned the relevance of the habeas statute once Lopez Belloza was no longer in custody, while Judge Sandra L. Lynch noted difficulties Lopez Belloza’s lawyers reported in ascertaining her location after her transfer, describing it as a “new wrinkle” in similar cases. The judges also questioned the refusal to board the government-arranged flight, with Gelpí indicating that the government’s offer to return was conditional and limited.

The court did not issue a decision at the hearing’s conclusion. It could take months before the panel rules on whether Lopez Belloza may resume her case in Massachusetts and potentially return to the United States.