BOSTON — The feds are in full-on cleanup mode after ICE deported a Babson College freshman to Honduras — despite a judge’s order meant to stop it — prompting a rare government apology in open court and a blunt suggestion from the bench: just issue her a student visa and bring her back.

The student, Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, 19, was detained at Boston Logan International Airport on Nov. 20 as she tried to fly to Texas for Thanksgiving. The next day, a Massachusetts federal judge issued an emergency order barring her removal or transfer out of the state for 72 hours. But by Nov. 22, she was out of Massachusetts and out of the country.

That’s what set off Tuesday’s hearing in Boston federal court, where government lawyers acknowledged the order was violated and apologized, blaming the breach on an error in how the order was handled during a fast-moving custody transfer. U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns wasn’t in the mood for bureaucratic excuses, calling the situation a “bureaucratic mess” and pushing for a practical remedy.

His idea: cut through the red tape. Issue a student visa so the Babson freshman can return to the U.S. and get back to school while the case plays out.

The fight now turns on two tracks — what the government did after the judge spoke, and why she was in ICE’s crosshairs to begin with. ICE has said Lopez Belloza was already subject to a prior removal order issued years earlier, when she was a child. Her lawyers have argued she was unaware of any active order and say the government’s handling of the case spiraled into a chain of decisions that ended in a deportation carried out in direct conflict with the court’s freeze.

The student’s attorneys are pressing for concrete steps to facilitate her return and for accountability over how the order was disregarded. The government has insisted the violation was not intentional and has pushed back on contempt claims.

For now, the judge made one thing clear: he wants this mess fixed — fast — and he’s openly signaling that a student visa may be the simplest way to undo a deportation the government has now admitted should not have happened the way it did.