If amidst all the other goings on you forgot that ICE defied a court order and deported a college student who tried to fly home to surprise her parents for Thanksgiving I understand. She and her plight are back in the news. A federal judge asked authorities to return Any Lucia Belloza to the U.S. and issue her a Student Visa. Via an assistant U.S. Attorney ICE said ‘No effing way!’
The judge asked nicely although there was every reason to drop the hammer on ICE. Let’s backtrack. This ABC News article outlines the basics of what happened and where things now stand. Belloza arrived in the U.S. when she was eight years old, with her parents who fled Honduras seeking asylum. They built a life here (in Texas) and she has never been in trouble with the law. She studied hard and got accepted into a top school in Boston and scholarships to pay for it all. She was literally living the American dream and on her way to become a productive member of society.
However, ICE claims a final deportation order was issued against her back in 2015. She and her lawyer didn’t know anything about it. One thing news reports haven’t spoken much about is that her parents are still here in the U.S. which tells me their legal status is solid. Otherwise ICE would have deported them too. I suspect (although I’m guessing) is that there was some kind of glitch when the paperwork was filed granting the family legal status. Also, lest we forget if not for Trump the Dream Act would have protected this young woman. As for that deportation order, I’ve tried to follow this case and I’ve yet to see a news story indicating a copy has ever been submitted in court. If ICE is asking the judge or any of us to take their word for it I for one would prefer a more reliable authority!
Anyway, Belloza wanted to surprise her parents for Thanksgiving. However when she showed up at the airport in Boston she was detained. ICE sure as hell was in a rush to get this teenaged college student who’d never had a brush with the law out of the state and out of the country. The ARE, or so they say focused on ‘the worst of the worst.’ If a college student who worked like hell to get the grades to an elite university and scholarship money to pay for her higher education qualifies as ‘the worst of the worst’ I say ICE, and Trump, Miller and Noem are full of shiite.
Belloza would it seems have been lucky that her detention became known and she quickly had a lawyer. He went to court and a judge issued an order that she not be removed from the state. ICE ignored it. (Of course) Then when the judge learned they were immediately deporting her from the facility in Texas she’d been moved to to Honduras he again issued an order barring ICE from taking that step. Once again ICE blew it off. Belloza has been stuck living with a relative in Honduras ever since, her dreams shattered.
ICE has dug in its heels on this case. Why? Did some agent (or their kid) hit on her at university and get rebuffed? Or is is just imitating their ‘hero’ Trump and viewing any admission of error a weakness. The point remains that ICE defied two court orders and deported this young woman who again has NO criminal history. I for one am mystified at this latest thing from the court, by which I mean the judge asking nicely:
After the college student’s removal, U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns said he was giving the government an opportunity to “rectify the mistake” and recommended that she be issued a student visa.
I can’t help but wonder what the hell judge Stearns was thinking. There is zero evidence that ICE would, absent serious legal threat do anything but what they’ve done. Which is basically turn around, drop their pants and ‘moon’ him. And do so officially, on the record in court with some inter-agency non-cooperation (with the court) cooperation/collusion:
But on Friday, U.S. Attorney Leah Foley argued in a court filing that the Secretary of State lacks the legal authority to unilaterally issue visas. Foley said that if Lopez Belloza were returned to the U.S., she would remain subject to immediate detention and removal based on a final deportation order.
“ICE has considered returning Petitioner to the United States to the status quo that existed immediately prior to her removal, but respectfully declines to pursue this course of action,” Foley said.
ICE is telling the judge to piss-off. I suspect Foley chose to engage in some self-preservation with that ‘respectfully declines to pursue this course of action’ language. ICE likely told her to tell the court to go F**k itself. Or Noem tried to imitate the delightful character played by Betty White in the movie Lake Placid who told the local sheriff “If I had a dick this is when I’d tell you to suck it.”
ICE clearly won’t back down on this. Not without one helluva fight and given the heat they’ve brought down on themselves THIS was a chance for them to easily grab a little positive PR. Instead they are keeping up with the whole “The Cruelty Is the Point” routine. Judge Stearns should have known ICE would say no way to his request. Let’s hope he was just giving them some rope and will wind up strangling them with it. Judges around the country have increasingly unwilling to put up with ICE’s bullshit.
I hope judge Stearns goes nuclear on ICE. I also hope some rich democrats with private planes make arrangements to get Belloza back and forth from Texas to Boston until the issue with that 2015 deportation order is figured out. Most importantly that order needs to be withdrawn and expunged, AND that Belloza be given a credential that ensures in the future it won’t pop up again if she tries to board a commercial flight. In the computer age, expunged records have a way of popping back up. In a way ICE has already inflicted a life sentence on this young woman.
Maybe the judge will point that out in court and tell them something like ‘You make it a point to be as cruel as possible and this woman will have that 2015 order hanging over her head until the day she dies. Because I don’t TRUST you to do all you can to correct the record and expunge it. Even if you did actually try your best we all know it will be somewhere in some database and resurface someday. You got your pound of flesh. Now let this woman go back to school, earn her degree(s) and become more a more valuable member of society than ANY ICE agent you can bring before this court.’
For starters, let ICE produce a real, bona fide copy of that 2015 deportation order and documentation of attempts to notify Belloza (and her parents) of deportation proceedings in process against her. If any of the Lincoln Project folks (we know they at least used to drop in here) see this they should convince a few journalists to really dig into that deportation order. Come to think of it so should judge Stearns.
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