{"id":369929,"date":"2026-07-12T01:18:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T01:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/369929\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T01:18:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T01:18:07","slug":"ice-frees-san-antonio-mariachi-who-was-detained-after-gig","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/369929\/","title":{"rendered":"ICE frees San Antonio mariachi who was detained after gig"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hebert Kaleth Ibarra Castro, 20, was released Saturday from the South Texas ICE Processing Center in\u00a0Pearsall, 55 miles southwest of San Antonio. He had been in custody since June 25, when he was pulled over for speeding in China Grove while driving home from a mariachi gig.<\/p>\n

When Hebert produced a Mexican driver’s license as identification, local police contacted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE agents went to the scene, interviewed Hebert and determined that he was in the country illegally.<\/p>\n

“When he was locked away in ICE detention, he performed the National Anthem on the Fourth of July,” U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, who had pressed for Hebert’s release, said on social media. “In a country that stands for freedom and opportunity, he deserves a fair chance at the American Dream.<\/p>\n

“I am grateful that he is home. Together, we\u2019ll keep fighting to stop Trump\u2019s mass deportation campaign and stand up for our neighbors,” the congressman wrote.<\/p>\n

Hebert comes from a long line of mariachi musicians and performs\u00a0with\u00a0Mariachi Los Galleros de San Antonio<\/a>, a professional ensemble. He plays the vihuela, a five-stringed,\u00a0guitar-like instrument, and is\u00a0the youngest member of the group, dubbed \u201cEl Ni\u00f1o,\u201d or \u201cthe kid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hebert’s family brought him to the U.S. when he was four. His mother said they were fleeing cartel violence in Nuevo Le\u00f3n, Mexico, and entered the country legally in May 2010. She acknowledged that the family overstayed their visas.<\/p>\n

The mother said she and her husband initially thought they would return to Mexico but decided against it when relatives there were threatened, killed or disappeared. Lawyers they consulted told them it would cost $25,000 to pursue asylum in the U.S. and that their chances of success were minimal, she said.<\/p>\n

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, provides temporary protection from deportation to people who entered the U.S. without legal authorization as children. Hebert was not eligible because he entered the country in 2010, after DACA’s cutoff date of 2007.<\/p>\n

Hebert\u2019s wife, Marisol Pantoja, 20, is a U.S. citizen. The couple met as students at Fox Tech High School, where both participated in the mariachi program. They recently filed an adjustment of status petition seeking legal permanent residency for Hebert as the spouse of an American citizen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hebert Kaleth Ibarra Castro, 20, was released Saturday from the South Texas ICE Processing Center in\u00a0Pearsall, 55 miles…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":["post-369929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369929","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=369929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}