Politics, Elections and Government

A Missouri school janitor was deported despite community outcry: 'It's not right'

St. Louis Public Radio | By Brian Munoz

Published June 6, 2026 at 4:00 AM CDT

Maplewood residents Debbie, left, Mendel, 5, and Corinne, right, who declined to give their last name, rally in support of Alba Del Socorro Matamoro-Hernandez, who is facing deportation alongside her husband, Boanerges Flores-Bravo, and young daughter outside the Robert A. Young Federal Building on June 1 in downtown St. Louis.

Boanerges Flores-Bravo says he signed self-deportation paperwork after officials told him his family would be deported without him, according to U.S. Rep. Wesley Bell. Flores-Bravo fled Nicaragua with his wife and daughter four years ago to escape political persecution

A Maplewood Richmond Heights School District janitor was deported to Nicaragua on Thursday after being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for more than two weeks.

Boanerges Flores-Bravo; his wife, Alba Del Socorro Matamoro-Hernandez, and their now 8-year-old daughter, Mauren, fled Nicaragua four years ago to escape political persecution in Nicaragua. They applied for asylum at the U.S. border and were allowed to enter the country.

ICE detained Flores-Bravo during a routine check-in last May.

U.S. Rep Wesley Bell, D-St. Louis County, traveled to the Richwood Correctional Center in Louisiana earlier this week, where Flores-Bravo was being held, in hopes of intervening in his deportation.

"This is a hard-working man who followed the correct steps to seek asylum and obtain a work permit," said Bell in a social media post on Thursday. "Today, he has been taken away from his wife and daughter, and shipped to a country thousands of miles away from them. It's not fair, and it's not right."

A photo of Boanerges Flores-Bravo, Alba Del Socorro Matamoro-Hernandez and their 8-year-old daughter Mauren Flores Matamoro.

Bell alleged Flores-Bravo was coerced into signing self-deportation paperwork before they met and said federal officials told the Maplewood man his family would be deported without him if he did not voluntarily sign.

Matamoro-Hernandez, his wife, and their daughter signed up for self-deportation and will leave the country later this summer. The mother said she couldn't subject herself and her daughter to being in ICE detention.

An ICE spokesperson said in a statement earlier this week that "being in detention is a choice" and encouraged immigrants without legal status to self-deport.

"My heart is broken for him and his family. But this is not the end. I vow to hold these officials accountable," Bell wrote in a statement. "It's going to take all of us continuing to fight together to reform ICE and the immigration process."

Earlier this week, teachers, classmates and community advocates decried the impending move during a rally outside the Robert A. Young Federal Building in downtown St. Louis.

"The government is not deporting criminals the way [Trump] is saying they are," said Matamoro-Hernandez of her family's situation. "The majority of us who are here are workers. The only thing we want is to get our family ahead."