⚖ Oral Arguments, with Context

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Lopez Belloza v. Hyde — 1st Cir. (Oct 5, 2026)

No. 26-1236 Argued October 5, 2026 Published October 6, 2026

The First Circuit hears the case of a college student deported after she tried to fly home for Thanksgiving. In November 2025, nineteen-year-old Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, a Honduran student at Babson College, was arrested at Boston's Logan Airport while traveling to visit her parents in Texas. ICE was enforcing a removal order entered in 2017, when she was eleven. Agents transferred her to Texas before her lawyer filed a habeas corpus petition in Massachusetts. A habeas corpus petition asks a court to review whether government custody is lawful. A judge temporarily barred deportation, but ICE sent her to Honduras the next day in violation of that order. The district court later ordered the government to facilitate her return, while ruling that Massachusetts lacked jurisdiction over the original petition because she was already detained in Texas when it was filed. She declined the government's offer to return her to Texas; her lawyers wanted the protection of the Massachusetts court. The court dismissed her petition, and she appealed. That leaves two questions: could Massachusetts hear the case when her lawyer could not locate her, and is the appeal now moot, meaning there is no live dispute a court can remedy? Erica Ross represents Lopez Belloza. She will argue that undisclosed transfers cannot defeat access to habeas review and that returning her under Massachusetts court protection remains meaningful relief.

Lopez Belloza v. Hyde (No. 26-1236) — U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, argued October 5, 2026.

Sources
Argument audio — First Circuit, No. 26-1236:https://www.ca1.uscourts.gov/sites/ca1/files/oralargs/26-1236_20261005.mp3
Argument date and parties — official First Circuit calendar:https://www.ca1.uscourts.gov/doar/results/2026-10
Initial facts and claims — filed November 21, 2025 habeas petition:https://www.justsecurity.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Lopez-Belloza-v.-Hyde-1-25-cv-13499-D.-Mass.-Petititon-Nov.-21-2025.pdf
Detention and deportation timeline — January 16, 2026 district order:https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-mad-1_25-cv-13499/pdf/USCOURTS-mad-1_25-cv-13499-0.pdf
Return remedy — February 13, 2026 district order:https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-mad-1_25-cv-13499/pdf/USCOURTS-mad-1_25-cv-13499-1.pdf
Dismissal and appeal — public district clerk entries through March 6, 2026:https://dockets.justia.com/docket/massachusetts/madce/1:2025cv13499/292111
Counsel — public appellate clerk entries through September 9, 2026:https://dockets.justia.com/docket/circuit-courts/ca1/26-1236
Unknown-custodian doctrine — filed former-judges amicus brief:https://law.yale.edu/sites/default/files/area/clinic/document/2026-05-26-amici-curiae-brief-of-former-federal-and-state-judges-with-addendum-of-amici-curiae.pdf
Habeas corpus — 28 U.S.C. § 2241:https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2024-title28/html/USCODE-2024-title28-partVI-chap153-sec2241.htm
Mootness rule — Supreme Court, Chafin v. Chafin (2013):https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/boundvolumes/568bv.pdf

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