An immigrant family detained since late February despite the musical accomplishments of their mariachi sons was released Monday from a South Texas lockup during a visit from San Antonio U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro and other Democratic lawmakers.
The congressional representatives who accompanied Castro on his visit to the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley included Minority Whip Katherine Clark of Massachusetts along with democratic U.S. Reps. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania and Nanette Barragán, Julia Brownley, and Sara Jacobs of California.
“The Gámez-Cuéllar family should never have been sitting in the Dilley trailer prison,” Castro said at a press conference at San Antonio City Hall following the visit to the detention center an hour southwest of town. “Their story underlies the cruelty, irony and hypocrisy of the Trump administration’s mass deportation policy.”
Antonio Yesayahu Gámez-Cuéllar, 18, was detained separately from the family at El Valle Detention Center in Raymondville, about two hours away.
Monica De La Cruz, a Republican who represents the Gámez-Cuéllar’s hometown of McAllen, said in a series of Facebook posts that she’s been asking federal officials for the family’s release. Cruz said she was in touch with the White House, incoming Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and the office of the Border Czar Tom Homan.
“We have been praying for their family over the last couple of days, and thankfully, he is now beside me and is going home to his family and friends who love him and miss him dearly,” De La Cruz said at a press conference outside the Raymondville facility, the Express-News reports. “I want to say this: This day should not be about politics.”
Cruz is an ardent supporter of President Donald Trump and voted for the One Big Beautiful Bill last summer, which allocated an additional $170 billion to the Department of Homeland Security including $75 billion for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That money is funding the rapid expansion of immigrant detention centers nationwide.
Castro avoided speaking directly about his Republican colleague at the press conference. However, Representative Barragán said in an Instagram video following the visit that she’d asked the Gámez-Cuéllar family if De La Cruz had done anything to help them.
“They specifically said ‘no,’ Barragán said.
The rest of the family was released from Dilley while the congressional representatives visited the facility.
The Gámez-Cuéllar family was detained at an ICE check-in appointment on Feb. 25. They crossed the border from Mexico legally in 2023 to seek asylum after father Luís Antonio Martínez had reportedly been kidnapped by cartel members.
The sons have received numerous honors for their musical abilities since relocating to Texas. Nine months ago, Antonio Yesayahu Gámez-Cuéllar, 18, and Caleb Gámez-Cuéllar, 14, were honored in Washington D.C. for winning a statewide mariachi competition in Texas.
“The great irony and hypocrisy is that these young men were good enough to perform at the United States Capitol Building. That they were not considered any kind of a security threat to our country,” Castro said at the City Hall press conference, joined by advocacy group Forward.Us, some of the Congressional representatives and San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones. “And they go from that last summer — less than a year ago — to sitting in a trailer prison.”
Antonio Gámez-Cuéllar is a high school senior and first-chair mariachi trumpet for the entire state of Texas. Because he’s 18, he was separated from the rest of his family and detained in Raymondville. Castro said the young man’s father began crying as he described the sight of his teenage son being shackled on his arms and legs and led away by federal agents.
“They felt like their sons had been used in a way because they had gone out to the Capitol to perform in front of Congress, and at the same time they felt like this was a statement, that they were somehow not good enough,” Castro said.
A national outcry for the family’s release erupted over the weekend following news reports of their arrest and detention.
As of Monday afternoon, the family has been reunited and returned to their home in McAllen while their immigration case moves forward.
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