“These were upstanding folks who were following the law,” Congressman Joaquin Castro said in a social media update.
SAN ANTONIO — The McAllen family whose detainment by federal immigration enforcement sparked bipartisan outcry over the weekend was released Monday afternoon, according to Texas congressional representatives who were taking action in the case.
The push was a bipartisan one. Democratic U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro said on social media four members of the Gámez-Cuéllar family, including 12-year-old Joshua and 14-year-old Caleb, were released from a detention facility in Dilley. Shortly after, Republican U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz said their older brother, 18-year-old Antonio, was also “going home.”
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said the family had been in custody since Feb. 25 after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested the parents; the department said they “chose to bring their adult son and two children with them.”
DHS, emphasizing that “ICE does not separate families,” said the Gámez-Cuéllar family illegally entered the country in 2023. Organizers of a GoFundMe that was set up to help the family with legal expenses claimed differently, saying they were navigating the asylum process as required.
Democratic Congressman Vincente Gonzalez, who represents a portion of South Texas, also said the family had “complied with the law, yet were still detained” by ICE.
Castro shared photos of the release of Joshua and Caleb, along with their parents, on Monday afternoon.
Antonio and Caleb are members of Mariachi Oro, the McAllen High School group that has won the state championship in mariachi eight times and was the focus of a 2024 Netflix documentary. Their detainments came months after performing in front of Congress at the U.S. Capitol last summer.
“These were upstanding folks who were following the law,” Castro said in his video update posted to Facebook. “At the invitation at the congressman, those young men performed their mariachi music at the U.S. Capitol. And now they’ve been sitting here at this trailer prison and we’re waiting for them to be released so that we can help them get home.”
Dilley is located about 70 miles southwest of San Antonio. It’s in Congressional District 23, represented by Republican U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, but Castro has now made multiple visits to the detention facility there this year while criticizing the federal government’s detention of children and others who he says don’t have a criminal history.
Speaking with other House Democrats who visited the facility on Monday, Castro repeatedly referred to it as a “trailer prison” and said there were about 450 people detained there–about 650 fewer, he said, than when he visited in late January.
“I believe the public outcry is making a difference,” the San Antonio congressman said. “My goal is to shut down Dilley. I don’t think anyone should be held at that trailer prison, especially children.”