Texas lawmakers criticize ICE for detaining two teen mariachi musicians | ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement)
Texas lawmakers from both parties criticized immigration authorities for detaining two young mariachi musicians who were honored by Congress last year.
The case attracted national attention because 18-year-old Antonio Yesayahu Gámez-Cuéllar and 14-year-old Caleb Gámez-Cuéllar traveled to Washington, D.C., last summer after their high school’s mariachi troupe, Mariachi Ono, won a mariachi competition in the state. Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz invited them to the House floor. famous their success.
Late last month, the siblings and their parents, Luis Antonio Martínez and Emma Guadalupe Cuéllar, along with their younger brother, 12-year-old Joshua Gámez-Cuéllar, were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to Texas representatives.
One expression On Saturday, De La Cruz, a Republican whose district includes McAllen, where the family lives, said the family’s story “breaks my heart.”
On Monday, he announced the release of one of the children, Antonio. “Antonio is going home,” she said in a statement, adding: “I will continue to defend his family in accordance with the law and will not stop until they are reunited.”
The parents and their two youngest sons are being held at a family detention center in Dilley, Texas, while Antonio, who recently turned 18, is being held in a separate adult facility, Texas Democratic representative Joaquin Castro said over the weekend.
Castro said he met Antonio and Caleb at a convention event last year.
“The entire Gámez-Cuéllar family did everything the right way” Castro in question. “They applied for asylum and were accepted. They attended every court date and immigration check. ICE detained them anyway.”
“Donald Trump said he was going after criminals, he said he was going after people who were dangerous to Americans — so how is it that these two young men were well enough to demonstrate at the United States Capitol at the invitation of their congressmen, were safe enough to tour the White House, and yet the Trump administration is keeping them in a prison in Dilley, Texas?”
Father Luis Antonio Martínez told the New York Times: last week He said the family entered the United States through the Brownsville border gate in 2023 seeking asylum after escaping threats in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, where they were kidnapped by cartel members.
They settled in McAllen and were attending required court dates and checks. Martínez said their last ICE appointment was in January and they were told to return in June.
But Martínez said he later received a call from ICE instructing them to report on Feb. 25, and the family was detained at that appointment, according to the New York Times.
In a statement Monday, a Department of Homeland Security spokesman said ICE detained the parents, who it said were in the country illegally, on Feb. 25. The parents “chose to bring their adult son and two children with them,” the spokesman said.
“ICE does not separate families,” the spokesperson said. “Parents are asked if they would like to be removed with their children, otherwise ICE will place the children in a safe person designated by the parents. This is consistent with the past administration’s immigration enforcement.”
