![\"Students](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_1644-1000x750.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Bianca Seward\/Houston Public Media<\/p>\n
Students rally at Sam Houston Math, Science, and Technology Center in February 2026, calling for the release of their classmate Mauro Henriquez from an ICE detention center.<\/p>\n
A Houston ISD student who was the captain of his high school’s soccer team was deported to Honduras on Wednesday after he spent months in two different federal detention centers, according to two local lawmakers and a source close to the family. <\/p>\n
Houston Public Media is told Mauro Henriquez, an 18-year-old senior at Sam Houston Math, Science, and Technology Center, was informed of his deportation Tuesday night. The next day he was flown to Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s just tragic that he\u2019s been deported,” U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, said Thursday. “This is a young man. A senior in high school. A captain of a soccer team. [He’s] never committed a crime before, completely clean record. He should be in school. He should be getting ready to graduate with his teammates and instead he\u2019s been deported to Honduras.”<\/p>\n
Sign up for the Hello, Houston!<\/a> daily newsletter to get local reports like this delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) did not immediately respond to requests for comment and questions about Henriquez’s case. <\/p>\n Henriquez was detained Dec. 16 alongside his father, during a check-in with ICE agents. Initially the two were sent to the Montgomery Processing Center in Conroe. Henriquez was later separated from his father and moved to the IAH Secure Adult Detention Facility in Livingston on Feb. 12.<\/p>\n An ICE spokesperson previously said the transfer was for “routine detention management purposes.”<\/p>\n Earlier in February, an ICE spokesperson said Henriquez and his father, Mauro Henriquez-Alfaro, had both received “full due process under the law and been ordered deported.” The spokesperson added that Henriquez-Alfaro had previously been deported to Honduras in July 2008 for illegally entering the U.S.<\/p>\n “The media and the public need to understand that employment authorization does NOT confer any type of legal status in the United States,” the ICE spokesperson also wrote in an email in early February. “It is a permission to work, not a green card or visa, and does not grant lawful status or shield illegal aliens from immigration enforcement actions.”<\/p>\n RELATED: One out of every seven Houston-area residents know of someone detained by ICE, survey finds<\/a><\/p>\n Garcia’s office said Henriquez, the student, recently got new legal representation. For the majority of the time since he was detained in December, he did not have a lawyer, according to Garcia’s office.<\/p>\n State Rep. Christina Morales, D-Houston, said she visited Henriquez for a second time on Good Friday, April 3. She says when Henriquez told her about the day he was detained, he recalled being nervous during the check-in after agents took his father into another room. <\/p>\n “He thought something\u2019s wrong, and [said] \u2018I wonder if I should walk out of here,'” Morales told Houston Public Media. <\/p>\n Bianca Seward\/Houston Public Media<\/p>\n Students rally at Sam Houston Math, Science, and Technology Center in February 2026, calling for the release of their classmate Mauro Henriquez from an ICE detention center.<\/p>\n At the time of their recent visit, Henriquez still thought he may be released from ICE detention and allowed to stay in the U.S., according to Morales. She asked him what he’d like to do most when he gets out. <\/p>\n “I just want to see my mom,” Henriquez told Morales, according to the elected official. <\/p>\n![\"Rally](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_1670-2-1000x750.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n