Two Texas mariachi students honored at the U.S. Capitol are now in ICE detention with their family, raising new questions about immigration enforcement and deportation priorities affecting Latino communities.
Last June, two teenage brothers from South Texas and their high school mariachi bandmates traveled to Capitol Hill. They had been invited there by their congresswoman, Monica De La Cruz. She was going to recognize the band on the House floor for winning a state mariachi competition.
“Your community is so so proud of your hard work, your talent and your dedication,” Ms. De La Cruz, a Republican, told the students.
Nine months later, the brothers, Antonio Yesayahu Gámez-Cuéllar, 18, and Caleb Gámez-Cuéllar, 14, along with their parents and younger brother, are in ICE detention and facing deportation.
The family’s detainment has drawn concern and criticism from Texas lawmakers, who have raised questions about the kinds of people the Trump administration is targeting in its mass deportation campaign.
“Donald Trump said he was going after criminals,” Representative Joaquin Castro, a Texas Democrat, said in a video posted to social media on Saturday. “He 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?”
Mr. Castro continued: “They were safe enough to tour the White House. And yet, the Trump administration has them sitting in a prison.”
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The family entered the United States in 2023 at the border crossing in Brownsville, Texas, on an asylum claim and settled in nearby McAllen, according to Luis Antonio Martínez, the father.
In an interview last week, Mr. Martínez said that he and his wife and children were fleeing threats in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, where he had been kidnapped by cartel members.
The family had been attending its required court dates and last had a check-in with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement in January, where they were told to return in June, Mr. Martínez said.
Then he received a call from ICE saying that the family needed to check in on Feb. 25. They were detained at that check-in.
In a video posted on Saturday, Bobby Pulido, the Tejano singer who is running as a Democrat to unseat Ms. De La Cruz in Texas’ 15th Congressional District, said the family had passed a credible fear screening.
“They followed the rules,” Mr. Pulido said. “They’re doing it the right way. And now they’re being torn apart.”
In a statement on Saturday, Ms. De La Cruz said the family’s detention “breaks my heart.”
“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,” she said. “My office is closely monitoring their situation and we are doing all we can.”
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