“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 in the process of being 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.
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.”
The news came after Castro and other House Democrats visited the facility in Dilley, located about 70 miles southwest of downtown San Antonio. The group was expected to speak about their visit and what they saw at 4 p.m. Monday.
This is a developing story.