Two teenage mariachi musicians were released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody after their detention sparked widespread backlash, including from a Republican congresswoman.
The Democratic representative Joaquin Castro of Texas announced the release of the brothers, Antonio Yesayahu Gámez-Cuéllar, 18, and Caleb Gámez-Cuéllar, 14, on Monday afternoon, sharing photos on social media of the family reuniting.
The case has drawn national attention because the brothers had travelled to Washington DC last summer after their high school’s mariachi ensemble, Mariachi Ono, won a state mariachi competition. Their congresswoman, Monica De La Cruz, a Republican, had invited them to the House floor, where she celebrated their accomplishment.
De La Cruz, whose district includes McAllen, where the family lives, said in a statement on Saturday that the family’s story “breaks my heart”.
She wrote: “I have repeatedly urged that enforcement target those who actually threaten our communities, not good, law-abiding, talented people who are working through the legal process.”
The brothers and their parents, Luis Antonio Martínez and Emma Guadalupe Cuéllar, as well as their younger brother, Joshua Gámez-Cuéllar, 12, were detained by ICE late last month.
De La Cruz announced earlier on Monday that Antonio had been released, saying, the “beautiful mariachi family will be reunited very soon”!
The parents and two younger brothers had been taken to a family detention center in Dilley, Texas, while Antonio, who had recently turned 18, was held at a separate adult facility, Castro said over the weekend.
The Democratic congressman said he had met Antonio and Caleb at the congressional event last year, saying in a statement before their release: “The entire Gámez-Cuéllar family did everything the right way. They applied for and were granted asylum. They attended every court date and immigration check-in. ICE detained them anyway.
“Donald Trump said he was going after … people who were dangerous to Americans – well, how is it that these two young men were good enough to perform at the United States Capitol at the invitation of their congresswoman, they were safe enough to tour the White House and yet the Trump administration has them sitting in a prison?”
Castro brought a delegation of US representatives to Dilley on Monday and said in a video after their visit that they were told the Gámez-Cuéllar family was being processed for release. He later posted a photo of all five family members out of custody and reunited.
The father, Luis, told the New York Times last week that the family had entered the US in 2023 at the Brownsville border crossing on an asylum claim after fleeing threats in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, where he said he had been kidnapped by cartel members.
They settled in McAllen, and had been attending required court dates and check-ins. Martínez said that their last ICE appointment was in January, where they were told to return in June.
However, Martínez said that he later received a call from ICE instructing them to report on 25 February and it was at that appointment that the family was detained, according to the New York Times.
In a statement on Monday, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said that ICE detained the parents on 25 February, who they said were in the country illegally. The spokesperson said the parents “chose to bring their adult son and two children with them”.
The spokesperson continued: “ICE does not separate families. Parents are asked if they want to be removed with their children, or ICE will place the children with a safe person the parent designates. This is consistent with past administration’s immigration enforcement.”
Madeleine Dean, a Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania, who joined Castro on the visit, said after they left Dilley: “There is a good story here today. But we met an awful lot of people – a lot of children – being detained and a lot of very sad stories from all over the globe.”
The Dilley facility has faced intense scrutiny in recent months. It is also the site that housed Liam Conejo Ramos, a five-year-old Minnesota boy whose detention sparked global outrage. The boy and his father were also released from Dilley after Castro visited them in detention and advocated for them to return home.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
