I Hate Myself And I Want To Die play at The End in Houston on June 17, 2026.
Courtesy of I Hate Myself And I Want To Die
Omar Compean was sitting in Spanish class at South Houston High School in the spring when his mother sent him a text, asking him to call her. When she picked up the phone, what she told him turned Compean’s world upside down. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had arrested his father.
“I was kind of just dumbfounded,” Compean, 18, recalled. “I didn’t really believe her because that’s something crazy, something that we never thought would really happen.”
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Compean’s father, Omar Compean-Flores, had been driving past South Houston High School on Shaver Street when he was stopped and arrested by ICE. Compean said he left school immediately after hearing from his mom. He found that his father’s truck had been left in the street, the keys still in the ignition. Days later, Compean’s family heard from his father, who was being held in an ICE detention facility near Humble. And not long after that, his father was deported to Mexico, where he had immigrated from to Houston nearly 20 years ago. In a statement to Chron, a spokesperson for ICE said the agency arrested Compean-Flores on May 12 and deported him to Mexico on May 18 based on what they said was a conviction of “alien smuggling and illegal reentry” as well as an arrest for “reckless driving.”
When Compean learned of his father’s arrest and subsequent deportation, his life was thrown into chaos. He didn’t tell anyone what had happened except for close friends.
“I haven’t cried for years, but when that happened, just the thought of my dad and not seeing him for a while, it just kind of made me a little emotional,” Compean said. “My life was a little gray.”
‘The complete opposite of a bad guy’
Compean had been slated to go on a tour with his emo ska band, I Hate Myself And I Want To Die. The band was Compean’s life; he wrote and recorded all of IHMAIWTD’s songs, played most of the instruments and booked the shows. At IHMAIWTD’s live shows, he sang and played guitar. His dad had supported his band, his love of music, and had told Compean that they could take his truck on tour.
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“We were all kind of just really upset,” Compean said. “My dad was really just the light to the end of the tunnel when we were rehearsing, when we would play.”
Compean described his dad as “the nicest dude” who found something to love in everyone, even if he disapproved that some of Compean’s friends were “reefer addicts.” Even when they fought or disagreed, Compean knew his dad had his back. He felt frustrated at the elder Compean’s arrest and deportation because, despite rhetoric from federal immigration authorities about deporting “the worst of the worst,” he knew his dad.
“My dad is the complete opposite of a bad guy,” Compean said.
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The group went on tour at the beginning of June, even though Compean suspected it would be the last thing they did as a band. They played shows in cities including Los Angeles and San Diego, Phoenix and Tucson. Compean said he had a “great time” and did his best to enjoy his time with his friends.
But when he returned in late June, his mother told him the family would need to move to Mexico to be with Compean’s father, who was unable to return to Houston. So Compean and his band announced on Instagram that after two years playing around Houston, I Hate Myself And I Want To Die would be coming to an end for the foreseeable future.
“I realized there are bigger and more important things I have to take care of in my life and there just won’t be any opportunity for me to really keep going, so we have to cut back on being a band for a while,” the band wrote on Instagram. “We will be back!”
‘Ripped away from me just in an instant’
Compean told Chron that he had been hesitant to talk about his dad’s deportation. But the band had a small following in Houston and they “didn’t want to just disappear out of nowhere.” And Compean said he felt compelled to speak out about the impacts that President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in cities across America was having not just on immigrants, but their loved ones.
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“One second I was with my dad and my band and everything was fine. We were gonna go on tour. I set up that tour, that was like my life’s work,” Compean recalled. “And it basically just all got ripped away from me just in an instant.”
I Hate Myself And I Want To Die perform at Humble Heart in San Diego, California on June 12, 2026.
Courtesy of I Hate Myself And I Want To Die
The band’s post blew up, racking up thousands of likes and shares on Instagram, more attention than Compean said any post IHMAIWTD had ever gotten. Houstonians commented anti-ICE slogans and shared condolences. Others asked if there was a GoFundMe. For Compean, the attention on his little punk band was bittersweet.
“I did not expect the community to really support us this much,” Compean said. “This is the first time we’ve ever been in the public view. It’s kind of crazy to me that we finally get the attention right at the very end, right when I’m about to move.”
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After talking it over with his family, Compean and his bandmates decided to put on one last show, a benefit concert to help his mom with the family’s moving expenses. They had to act fast; Compean would move to Mexico within a week. They decided to play their last show at High Volume Music Live in Southwest Houston on Aug. 9 with local punk and hardcore bands Eniightment and The Guerillas.
Smart, funny and sometimes unhinged look at the week that was.
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After moving to Mexico, Compean hopes that he can save up money and eventually return to Houston. He wants to get an apartment with his friends and keep making music. But for now, he and his family are leaving everything behind. Compean’s mother pulled him out of school, and the family had to sell their party rental and events company, Flores Event Decor, which Compean sometimes used as a music venue with his parents’ permission.
Compean described himself as “not the best student.” For him, music and his band was everything he wanted out of life. Now, at the end, he said that it’s hard not to feel that his devotion to his music was all for naught. But for Compean, Sunday’s gig was a sendoff for the band, one last party before the next chapter of his life starts.
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“The fact that we get to do one last show and that people are supporting us, it puts a smile to my face,” Compean said. “It’s almost poetic that this is like the last thing we do as a band before I leave.”