A college student was deported to Honduras after trying to visit his family in Texas over Thanksgiving

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According to attorney Todd Pomerleau, who represents the student, agents stated that there was a deportation order against her, something that was never reported, according to the family. The young woman’s father, Francis Lopez, a tailor who lives in Austin, claims his employer paid for his daughter to surprise him at work.

-Neither she nor we know anything.

The Department of Homeland Security stated that the deportation order for the young woman was issued in 2015, when she was still a child. According to department spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin, anyone would have followed “all due process.” But the lawyer casts doubt on the story: He says that upon consulting the official database, he found no record of the above-mentioned court decision.

– I am not convinced that such a thing exists. If it had, she should have been notified, Todd Pomerleau says.

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Despite the legal challenge, the deportation was carried out. The girl’s lawyer claims that a federal judge had signed, two days ago, a decision preventing the student from withdrawing while the case was pending. However, she spent any night detained in Texas, and the next day, she was transported handcuffed at the wrists, waist and ankles until she was placed on a plane bound for Honduras.

Now, residing in her ancestral home, the young woman asked her father to speak on her behalf. According to the man, Ay feels shaken and cannot recount the details of what she experienced, especially the period during which she was in detention.

– She did not sign anything that would allow her to be deported. Lopez explains that he is trying to understand this new reality.

The family left Honduras nearly 12 years ago, fleeing the climate of violence in San Pedro Sula. Ai’s father says he applied for asylum, but was rejected and was never told he had to appeal to avoid a deportation order. The girl grew up in Texas, with her parents and two younger brothers, aged two and five. Her father described her as organized and dedicated to her studies, and she dreamed of being the first in her family to graduate from college. The girl told the Boston Globe that she was worried about continuing her studies.

– I worked hard to be able to be in my first semester at Babson College, and this was my dream – she told the Boston Globe.

To date, Babson College, the college where any studies are being conducted, has not responded to the questions raised.

Increase in deportations of Hondurans

When Lopez’s family left the country for the United States, migration from Central America was already increasing, driven by violence, crime and economic stagnation in countries such as El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. In recent years, the outflow of Hondurans has increased again, with thousands joining migrant caravans and camping at the US-Mexico border.

President Donald Trump has made combating immigration and expelling immigrants a pillar of his election campaigns, most intensely in his bid to return to the White House. In recent days, he has once again set his sights on Honduras, backing right-wing conservative candidate Nasri Asfoura in weekend elections and pushing for the pardon of a former president widely accused by experts of encouraging a mass exodus from the country toward the United States.

The current president, Xiomara Castro, has devoted the final months of her term to balancing defense of Hondurans who have no legal status in the United States – estimated to number more than 500,000 – with the need to cooperate with the Trump administration, which has acted harshly against leaders who do not support its agenda.

As of November 20, nearly 30,000 Hondurans had been deported this year, about 13,000 more than in the same period the previous year, according to data from the Honduran government. The country’s authorities did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Ani’s case. The student’s father said he considered it important to announce the family’s status at a time when many others face deportation under Trump’s immigration tightening.