Immigration Agents Target Family of Deported College Student

The father of Any Lucía Belloza López said agents appeared at his home in Austin, Texas, on Sunday. His daughter, 19, was deported to Honduras during a surprise trip home for Thanksgiving.

On Sunday, immigration agents appeared at the family home of a recently deported college student in Austin, Texas, according to the family and their lawyer.

The agents arrived in three unmarked vehicles, and one agent in a green vest marked E.R.O. — Enforcement and Removal Operations — rushed toward the student’s father, Francis López, as he washed his car, Mr. López said. He ran into his backyard and closed a latched gate. The agent forced open the gate and proceeded to enter the backyard.

Mr. López entered his house and locked the back door, he said. After about two hours, the agents left, without ever trying to communicate with the family or knocking on the door.

Any Lucía López Belloza, a 19-year-old freshman at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., was traveling home to surprise her family for Thanksgiving when she was detained by immigration authorities at Logan International Airport in Boston on Nov. 20. She was deported two days later to Honduras, the Central American country from which she and her parents fled more than a decade ago.

Ms. López’s case has drawn attention to the expanding scope of the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants in the country illegally.

Immigration authorities cited a 2015 order of deportation in justifying the removal of Ms. López. Her lawyer, Todd Pomerleau, said he found no record of such an order and that she had been deported in violation of a court order that a federal judge signed on Nov. 21 that said Ms. López could not be removed from the United States while her case was pending.

It was not clear why agents from E.R.O., which is part of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, appeared at Ms. López’s parents’ home on Sunday, but Ms. López and her father have spoken broadly to the media about the case. Their home appeared to be the only one where the unmarked vehicles stopped, according to a lawyer for the family, Kristin Etter.

Ms. López’s parents’ legal status could have come to the attention of authorities because of media reports about her case, according to immigration groups. The López family’s petition for asylum was denied around a decade ago, but the family says that they were never notified of a deportation order.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, did not respond to a request for comment on Sunday afternoon.

U.S. Representative Greg Casar, the progressive Democrat who represents the López family’s district, said on Sunday that the visit was meant to send a message.

“To be clear, the Trump administration is targeting a college student’s family because that college student spoke out about the unjust way that she was treated by the federal government,” Mr. Casar said.

Mr. López said he was washing his car outside his home on Sunday when he saw a white Ford pickup cruising the block. When his youngest daughter, a toddler, darted into the street in front of the truck, Mr. López said he ran to get her and lifted his hand, in a gesture of apology.

Within minutes, two more vehicles appeared and the agent in the green vest, who was unmasked, stepped out of one and ran after Mr. López, without saying anything.

“Everything happened quickly,” Mr. López said, adding that the agent was armed but did not have his weapon drawn.

“We are a bit scared,” he added, “especially for our daughters.”

The López family immigrated to the United States nearly 12 years ago, fearing for the safety of Any, their firstborn daughter, as crime rose in the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula, Mr. López, 38, said in an interview.

They settled in Austin, where Mr. López said he works as a tailor and his wife cares for their two younger children, ages 5 and 2, who are both U.S. citizens.

When Any was still a child, the family sought asylum but their petition was denied by a judge, Mr. López said. He said the family did not know they had to promptly appeal the decision and they were not notified of a deportation order for himself, his wife or Any.

Ms. Etter, the family’s lawyer, said Mr. López and his family live in a “very pretty, tranquil neighborhood in Austin.”

Referring to the immigration agent who entered the backyard, Ms. Etter said, “They did not have any papers or any warrant out — I don’t know what kind of judicial warrant they could have, because there is no criminal case.”

When Any López was detained on Nov. 20, she was told that she was being removed from the country, where she lived since she was 7, because of a deportation order. (Ms. López did not qualify for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, because she arrived after the program’s cutoff date.)

Her trip home had been a gift — Mr. López’s employer and his wife paid for the flight home, Mr. López said.

When Ms. López’s ticket did not work, she went to a help counter, where she was surrounded by immigration agents, her lawyer said.

Jazmine Ulloa contributed reporting from New York.

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