Students protest outside Sam Houston Math, Science and Technology Center High School in support of Mauro Henriquez, a fellow student detained along with his father by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, calling for his release so he can return home and graduate with his class in Houston, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026.Raquel Natalicchio/Houston ChronicleA high school soccer captain whose detention by immigration officials last year sparked a widespread outcry has been deported to Honduras, lawmakers and sources close to the family confirmed to the Houston Chronicle on Wednesday.Mauro Yosueth Henriquez, 18, a senior at Sam Houston Math, Science and Technology Center, was detained with his father, Mauro Rigoberto Henriquez, on Dec. 16 during a routine check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Houston. The father and son were held at the Montgomery Processing Center in Conroe until Feb. 12, when the younger Henriquez was unexpectedly sent to a federal detention facility 50 miles northeast.Article continues below this adHenriquez’s soccer coach, Miguel Gusart, and a friend who spoke with the student's mother Wednesday said he was in Honduras as of April 8. His father, who was already deported to Honduras in February, was traveling with a family member to pick him up as of Wednesday afternoon, the coach said.Houston Chronicle LogoMake us a Preferred Source on Google to see more of us when you search.Add Preferred SourceThe offices of U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, and state Rep. Christina Morales also confirmed Yosueth Henriquez’s removal. Garcia was part of a group of Houston Democrats advocating for the teenager’s release, and Morales visited Yosueth Henriquez in detention as recently as April 3.Before his arrest, Yosueth Henriquez was captain of the soccer team. His detention spurred a mass protest outside the school, with hundreds of classmates and elected officials calling for his release and pledging to dedicate the rest of the season to their captain.Article continues below this ad“We miss him. We want him to come back,” co-captain Lionel Salinas, 18, said in February. “We’re a family and we talk about him all the time. I love him.”Classmates described him as a role model and dedicated student, teammate and friend. They hoped their classmate would be released in time to walk the stage with them for high school graduation.Gusart, the soccer coach, said he’d even pushed his annual soccer awards ceremony to the end of May, in case Yosueth Henriquez could be released in time to attend.“This situation has been really frustrating and confusing,” Gusart said. “I’m honestly just really sad for them.”Article continues below this adChristina Morales, Texas state representative for District 145, speaks during a protest outside Sam Houston Math, Science and Technology Center High School in support of Mauro and his father, who were detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in Houston on Friday, Jan. 30, 2026.Raquel Natalicchio/Houston ChronicleICE previously said it was following the law when detaining the two, noting that his father had returned to the United States after he was previously deported in 2008.Immigration attorneys and advocacy groups said detaining people like Yosueth Henriquez and his father betrays the promises President Trump made on the campaign trail to target criminal offenders who were the “worst of the worst.”Instead of targeting hardened criminals, they argue the administration is going after immigrants who have no criminal histories and are only accused of violating civil immigration laws. An analysis of detention and arrest data conducted by the Houston Chronicle in March shows that in Trump’s first nine months in office, immigration agents made about 54,000 arrests in Texas. Of those, fewer than 40% had criminal convictions.Article continues below this adAdriel Orozco, the senior policy counsel at the American Immigration Council, told the Chronicle last month the administration is likely casting a wider net in order to pad the administration’s arrest statistics and appease its base.“You would have to go after people that don't have criminal histories or who have minor issues in their criminal histories,” he said.This year, HISD’s immigrant student enrollment has dropped by nearly 4,000 students. Some students, like Yosueth Henriquez, have had themselves or family members detained by ICE, while others are afraid to attend school due to the federal immigration crackdown, experts told the Chronicle.Friends saw Yosueth Henriquez as recently as last week, when one of his teachers and Texas Rep. Christina Morales visited him on Good Friday.Article continues below this adInstead of the upcoming World Cup or his own graduation, Yosueth Henriquez told Morales he was most excited to see his mother if released. She said the two spoke on the phone daily.“This is not the Houston that I know. This is not the country that I know,” Morales said. “I just can't accept the fact that, in the United States of America, a young man like him has been sitting in detention instead of preparing for his graduation.”April 8, 2026Houston ISD ReporterClaire Partain is a Houston ISD reporter for the Houston Chronicle covering student achievement and the lead writer for the weekly Report Card newsletter. She can be reached at claire.partain@houstonchronicle.com. She got her start as sports editor at Texas State University (go ‘Cats!) before covering professional soccer team Austin FC and other Austin news at digital startup Austonia. Claire has also freelanced with her hometown paper, appearing in the Fairfield Recorder, Teague Chronicle and Corsicana Daily Sun.Immigration ReporterJulián Aguilar is an immigration reporter for the Houston Chronicle. An El Paso native, Aguilar’s journalism career began in 2007 at the Laredo Morning Times. He joined the Texas Tribune in 2009 and extensively reported on immigration, border security and the drug trade for the nonprofit news organization until 2021. His stories on immigration took him from El Paso to border towns in the Rio Grande Valley. Aguilar was part of a team of Tribune journalists who wrote a series of stories about “the reality and the rhetoric” about immigration in Texas. He journeyed by raft with smugglers who ferry people from Guatemala to Mexico, and rode with police officers patrolling the gang-controlled streets of El Salvador. After leaving the Tribune, Aguilar worked at KERA News from 2022 to 2024, then became a freelance reporter. He attended the University of Texas and earned his master's degree in journalism at the University of North Texas.