{"id":197377,"date":"2026-03-09T23:34:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T23:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/197377\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T23:34:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T23:34:11","slug":"ice-detention-of-texas-teen-mariachi-brothers-draws-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/197377\/","title":{"rendered":"ICE detention of Texas teen mariachi brothers draws criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"

RAYMONDVILLE, Texas (AP) \u2014 A family whose two teen boys are in a nationally recognized mariachi band in South Texas was reunited Monday afternoon after bipartisan criticism that the Trump administration\u2019s campaign for mass deportation<\/a> overreached by detaining the family.<\/p>\n

Brothers Antonio G\u00e1mez-Cu\u00e9llar, 18, and Joshua, 14, were detained along with their 12-year-old brother and their parents Feb. 25. The teenage boys were prominent members of the McAllen High School Mariachi Oro band, which has visited the White House, performed at Carnegie Hall and won eight state championships.<\/p>\n

The two younger boys and their parents were released Monday from a family detention center in Dilley, Texas, said U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Texas Democrat who visited them, marking his third visit<\/a> to the detention center.<\/p>\n

Antonio was released on Monday by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from a detention center in Raymondville, Texas. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey were ecstatic. They were crying. They were excited to be reunited with their son and brother, Antonio, who was being held separately in Raymondville,\u201d Castro said at a news conference in San Antonio. \u201cBut their mom kept asking, \u2018What did we do wrong? We followed all the rules. We went to court, we haven\u2019t done anything wrong.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The family had been checking in regularly with immigration authorities, as instructed, when they were detained, according to a relative and a girlfriend who organized a GoFundMe account for the family.<\/p>\n

The Department of Homeland Security said the parents, Emma Guadalupe Cuellar Lopez and Luis Antonio Gamez Martinez, were arrested by immigration authorities and \u201cchose\u201d to bring their three children with them. The department said they entered the U.S. illegally in 2023 near Brownsville, Texas.<\/p>\n

Efr\u00e9n C. Olivares, an attorney with the National Immigration Law Center representing the eldest son, Antonio, clarified that the family entered lawfully through the CBP One app, a legal pathway, in 2023. <\/p>\n

Olivares said Antonio was released after attorneys filed a parole request with ICE which ICE granted, and attorneys did not need to ask for a judge\u2019s order.<\/p>\n

Elected officials from across the political spectrum voiced support for the family, who are from Mexico and had sought asylum in the U.S. and were going through their immigration proceedings. <\/p>\n

\u201cI challenge my colleagues to work together for new enforcement policies that not only secure our border but make safer communities and that ultimately are common sense,\u201d U.S. Rep. Monica de la Cruz, a Republican congresswoman representing McAllen, in Raymondville after Antonio\u2019s release.<\/p>\n

McAllen\u2019s Republican mayor, Javier Villalobos, said he supported the family and said he continues to advocate for \u201cresponsible pathways for law abiding individuals who want to contribute to our economy, support their families, and become productive neighbors in McAllen.\u201d <\/p>\n

U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat, a New York Democrat and chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, called the family\u2019s detention \u201coutrageous.\u201d <\/p>\n

The boys\u2019 mariachi directors visited the family held in Dilley earlier Monday. Alex Trevi\u00f1o, the mariachi director and Neri Fuentes, the assistant director, said the kids were concerned about losing their playing abilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were worried that their fingers weren\u2019t going to work, because they don\u2019t have instruments,\u201d Trevi\u00f1o said.<\/p>\n

Antonio, who had been held apart from the family due to his age, recently won the first chair for trumpet in a state competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year he\u2019s going to be graduating from high school and going to college and joining some other groups in college. He wants to be a music educator,\u201d Fuentes said.<\/p>\n

Castro attributed the release of the family to an \u201censemble\u201d effort and said he continues to push for the family detention center in Dilley to be closed. He said the population at the detention facility had gone down from about 1,100 people in January to about 450 people, with about 100 of them being children. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RAYMONDVILLE, Texas (AP) \u2014 A family whose two teen boys are in a nationally recognized mariachi band in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[78025,78024,78022,1475,5578,145,78028,490,54570,1724,78023,21085,78027,1478,11728,54569,42025,78026,287,2899,4119,25209,27,29,28,1760,5576,5419,6956,1499,17269],"class_list":{"0":"post-197377","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-adriano-espaillat","9":"tag-alex-trevio","10":"tag-antonio-gmez-cullar","11":"tag-brownsville","12":"tag-domestic-news","13":"tag-donald-trump","14":"tag-emma-guadalupe-cuellar-lopez","15":"tag-general-news","16":"tag-immigrant-detention","17":"tag-immigration","18":"tag-javier-villalobos","19":"tag-joaquin-castro","20":"tag-luis-antonio-gamez-martinez","21":"tag-mcallen","22":"tag-minnesota","23":"tag-minnesota-ice-crackdown","24":"tag-mn-state-wire","25":"tag-neri-fuentes","26":"tag-politics","27":"tag-prisons","28":"tag-schools","29":"tag-teens","30":"tag-texas","31":"tag-texas-headlines","32":"tag-texas-news","33":"tag-tx-state-wire","34":"tag-u-s-democratic-party","35":"tag-u-s-department-of-homeland-security","36":"tag-u-s-immigration-and-customs-enforcement","37":"tag-u-s-news","38":"tag-united-states-government"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}