<\/p>\n
National Guard members stand behind Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and fellow governors as they hold a press conference along the Rio Grande at the U.S.-Mexico border to discuss Operation Lone Star and border concerns on Sunday, February 4, 2024 in Eagle Pass, TX.<\/p>\n
Raquel Natalicchio\/Staff photographer<\/p>\n
Mauro Yosueth Henriquez, 18, of Houston, TX, is pictured in a family photo held by his mother on February 23, 2026.<\/p>\n
Sharon Steinmann\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
Houston-area Democrats are outraged over the recent deportation of a high school senior<\/a> who was detained for nearly four months after a routine check-in with immigration officials.<\/p>\n But top Texas Republicans remain silent on the teenager\u2019s deportation, even as more voters have soured<\/a> on President Donald Trump\u2019s aggressive immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n Mauro Yosueth Henriquez, 18, was deported to his native Honduras earlier this week after spending nearly four months at various ICE detention facilities. His arrest sparked a large protest<\/a> in February outside Sam Houston Math, Science and Technology Center in north Houston, where he was co-captain of the varsity soccer team. Yosueth Henriquez had no criminal record.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n NEW POLICY BLOCKED: Federal judge blocks Trump refugee detention rule. What does it mean for Texas?<\/a><\/p>\n Houston City\u00a0Council Member Mario Castillo, who attended the rally in February, said his deportation signaled that the Trump administration\u2019s immigration policies extended far beyond the \u201cworst of the worst\u201d criminals that Trump promised to remove from the country.<\/p>\n \u201cIf following the law and doing things the correct way isn\u2019t enough to protect someone, then what does that say about the system we claim to uphold?\u201d Castillo said. \u201cWe\u2019re not talking about a criminal. He is a student, a leader and a Houstonian.”<\/p>\n U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, visited Yosueth Henriquez when he was detained at a facility in Livingston in February. She blasted the deportation as a \u201cdisgrace\u201d and as evidence the Trump administration isn\u2019t focusing its resources on convicted criminals.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cMauro is a student, a leader in his school and a young man with no criminal record who should be with his family, not torn from the community he calls home,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cHe is not the \u2018worst of the worst\u2019 this administration claims to target. This administration is not making us safer. It is ripping apart families.\u201d<\/p>\n Many Texas Republicans have backed the Trump administration\u2019s immigration crackdown, but GOP leaders didn\u2019t respond to questions about Yosueth Henriquez\u2019s deportation. The Houston Chronicle contacted the offices of Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, and U.S. Reps. Dan Crenshaw and Monica De La Cruz to gauge their reactions to the deportation of the teenager. None responded.<\/p>\n Yosueth-Henriquez\u2019s deportation comes as national polling shows a growing number of voters disapprove of the president\u2019s approach to tackling immigration. A Reuters poll released in February showed that fewer than 40% of respondents approved of the administration\u2019s immigration policy<\/a>, down from about 50% within the first months of Trump’s return to the White House.<\/p>\n In Texas, about 45% of respondents to a December poll <\/a>believed the administration\u2019s enforcement of immigration laws had gone too far, according to a statewide survey by the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin. That\u2019s compared to 25% who said enforcement had been \u201cabout right\u201d and 23% who thought it hadn\u2019t gone far enough.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Mauro is one of nearly 4,000 immigrant students<\/a> that HISD has lost since 2024-25, according to this year\u2019s state enrollment data. Classmates and experts said students are staying home from school due to fears over immigration enforcement, cutting them off from their education and future careers.<\/p>\n