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Any Lucía López Belloza had been away from her mother and father and two younger sisters since starting her first semester at a business college near Boston in August. A family friend provided her with plane tickets so she could travel back to her family in Texas and give them a surprise for the holiday gathering.

The 19-year-old university student was standing at the departure gate at Boston airport when she was informed there was an “error” with her travel documents; when she went to customer service, she was handcuffed and arrested by what she understood to be two federal immigration agents.

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

She was allowed a single call to her parents, who contacted a legal representative. The next day, a U.S. judge granted an injunction prohibiting her deportation from the US for at least 72 hours until her court proceedings could be reviewed.

But the following day, she was shackled at her hands, feet and waist and deported to her birth Honduras, a country which she left at the tender age of seven and of which she has almost no memory.

The Volatile Land She Was Sent To

A nation home to about 11 million people, Honduras is a primary trafficking routes for narcotics moved from South America to its northern neighbor, and has spent decades struggling against the expanding influence of armed gangs that control entire neighbourhoods, extort families and recruit youths. The country’s murder rate is triple the world average.

Honduras is also in a political maelstrom, with a extremely close presidential election of which the vote count has dragged on for days, with local politicians and experts condemning efforts by the US president, Donald Trump, to sway the electoral process.

“I never thought I would go through this tragedy,” said López, who, since being sent away on November 22nd, has been residing at her grandparents’ home in San Pedro Sula, Honduras’s second-largest city.

An ‘Unconstitutional Horror Show’ Says Legal Counsel

Her rapid deportation – under two days after she was detained at the airport – has drawn international scrutiny as one of the clearest examples of alleged violations under Trump’s mass deportation initiative.

“This situation is an legally dubious horror show,” said her lawyer, the Boston-based legal representative, who has defended other notable ICE detainees.

“She received no explanation why she was detained,” added Pomerleau. “She was shackled like she was some type of dangerous felon, and then sent to Honduras with no opportunity to have a legal hearing or even consult with an attorney,” he continued.

“If that isn’t a breach of rights, I don’t know what is,” he concluded.

Official Statement and Legal Contradictions

Trump administration officials have stated the chief focus of enforcement actions was individuals with serious records, but – like many others apprehended by immigration officers – López had no criminal record. Lacking legal status in the US is not a crime but a civil infraction.

A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) representative said López, “an undocumented individual”, was arrested because she “arrived in the country in 2014 and an immigration judge 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 shown the removal order, and that even if it does exist, a federal law stipulates that apprehensions in such instances can only take place within a 90-day window after the order is issued – “not 10 years later,” argued the lawyer.

“Her mother came to the US because of how horrific the circumstances were in Honduras, where gang members were killing and extorting people … They came here just like the Pilgrims 400 years ago, for a brighter future and to escape persecution,” explained the lawyer.

Conditions in San Pedro Sula

Honduras “faces a large out-migration issue”, said a social science researcher, a Soros justice fellow who studies deportees in the region. In the past decade, about a fifth of Hondurans have left the country, most heading to the US.

In 2014, when the student's family left Honduras, their city, San Pedro Sula, was considered the murder capital of the globe and their neighbourhood, La Pradera, was one of the most violent.

“The children and families that I’ve interviewed from there described a very strong presence of gangs who compelled multiple families to flee,” noted Kennedy.

Gang violence has a devastating impact on women, having been the main driver of femicides in Honduras recently. Teenage girls are especially vulnerable, making up the majority of female victims of assault.

“And now you have a teenager back in a place where the risks are high to be a female, who was given no due process rights in the US,” she stated.

Fighting for Return and Future

The student's lawyer said they are now awaiting an formal response from the US government to the judge as to why the judge's order barring her removal was ignored.

“There is a chance the administration will say: ‘We apologize, we made a mistake here, and we’re going to {bring her back|facilitate her return.’ That would be the sensible and just thing to do.

“But they might have a different approach, and that would necessitate me to make a forceful argument that the court order was violated and seek a solution,” he said.

“We’re not stopping until we she is returned”.

The student said she was trying to keep her mind occupied: “I am trying to be as optimistic and as resilient as I can.

“My desire is to be able to progress and perhaps resume my education, whether here or by completing my semester at the university. And one day, to be able to reunite with my parents and my family again,” she expressed.

Her university, the institution she was attending in Massachusetts, issued a public comment addressing her situation and saying that “the priority remains on assisting the individual and their family”.

“My primary objective in the US was always to pursue an education,” said she. “What happened to me isn’t fair, because we came to learn and strive, to move forward in pursuit of that promise of opportunity so many of us had.”