SAN ANTONIO – A McAllen family was released from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody after being detained and separated by ICE, according to U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro.
Two members of the Gámez-Cuéllar family, Antonio Gámez-Cuéllar, 18, and Caleb Gámez-Cuéllar, 14, are members of McAllen High School’s eight-time state championship Mariachi Oro band.
The two performed on Capitol Hill last June at the invitation of Rep. Monica De La Cruz, R-Edinburg.
Their story drew national attention after Tejano music star Bobby Pulido posted a video about the situation on Facebook, following reporting by independent journalist Cecilia Ballí.
A spokesperson for U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez said Monday that the family migrated in May 2023 using the dismantled CBP One app and passed a credible fear test associated with an asylum claim. ICE said Monday that the family entered the country illegally.
“Let’s not forget that this family followed the law and did everything it asked of them,” Gonzalez said in a statement. “They should have never been detained in the first place, and their situation speaks to the grave injustices this Administration is inflicting on families in South Texas and across the country.”
Antonio Gámez-Cuéllar was released from a detention center in Raymondville in South Texas, close to the U.S.-Mexico border. The rest of the family was released from the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley.
Multiple Democratic lawmakers, including Castro, were in both places Monday demanding the family’s release. After the visit, Castro and fellow representatives held a news conference in San Antonio.
The news conference was held in conjunction with criminal justice reform organization FWD.us and Families Belong Together, a campaign to “permanently end family separation and detention” as well as reuniting separated families, according to its website.
“Their mom kept asking, ‘What did we do wrong? We followed all the rules, we went to court, we haven’t done anything wrong, and we’re still sitting here in this place,’” Castro said. “So I’m glad that they’ve been released.”
Before the news conference, the Department of Homeland Security released a statement saying, “ICE does not separate families.”
Read the full statement below:
“On February 25, ICE arrested Emma Guadalupe Cuellar Lopez and Luis Antonio Gamez Martinez, two illegal aliens. They chose to bring their adult son and two children with them.
“The family unit illegally entered the U.S. in 2023 near Brownsville, Texas, and were RELEASED into the country by the Biden administration. The law requires illegal aliens who show up at a port of entry without valid entry to be detained while all their claims are heard. You can look it up in the statute. Unlike the previous administration, the Trump administration is not going to ignore the rule of law.
ICE does not separate families. Parents are asked if they want to be removed with their children, or ICE will place the children with a safe person the parent designates. This is consistent with past administration’s immigration enforcement.
The parents and their two minor children are being held at the Dilley facility. The Dilley facility is retrofitted for families. Children have access to teachers, classrooms, and curriculum booklets for math, reading, and spelling. All of this is generously funded by the US taxpayer. Adults with children are housed in facilities that provide for their safety, security, and medical needs.
Antonio Gamez-Cuellar, an 18 year-old adult male, is being held at the El Valley Detention Center. In strict accordance with ICE policy, adult males without children are NOT housed at the Dilley facility for the safety of the children inside the facility.
“Being in detention is a choice. Parents can take control of their departure and receive a free flight and $2,600 with the CBP Home app. By using the CBP Home app illegal aliens reserve the chance to come back the right legal way.”
DHS
Background
A distant relative of the Gámez-Cuéllar family told ABC affiliate KRGV the family migrated to the Rio Grande Valley in 2023 using the now-defunct CBP One app, fleeing violence in Mexico.
Migrants who were temporarily allowed to live in the U.S. through the CBP One app were told to leave the country “immediately” in April 2025.
It is unclear whether the Gámez-Cuéllar family was one of the families impacted by this announcement; however, Ballí‘s reporting indicates the parents had attended regular court dates and meetings with ICE officers as recently as this past January.
A final hearing in the family’s case was scheduled for September, Ballí reported, but in late February, the family was summoned to appear at ICE offices with their sons. It was at this meeting that they were taken into custody.
Antonio Gámez-Cuéllar had turned 18 years old the month prior, and because he is now an adult, he was being held at the El Valle Detention Center in Raymondville, Texas, the relative said.
His mother, father, 12-year-old brother and Caleb were being held more than 200 miles away at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley.
On Jan. 28, Castro was among several Texas lawmakers who visited the ICE facility in Dilley when he called for the release of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father from the family detention facility.
Ramos and his father were released from the facility on Feb. 1. A measles outbreak was reported at the ICE facility on the same day.
In the days and weeks since, Castro has described the Dilley facility as a “trailer prison” due to the families who are “housed in these trailers.”
On Feb. 20, the congressman raised alarms again after another visit to the facility. Castro said the children told him they still are not receiving adequate food and are being denied medical care.
According to Castro, conditions have not improved since then, and no schooling is being provided to children.
“These kids are despondent. They’re depressed. They’re languishing,” Castro said on Feb. 20. “There’s a brutality behind closed doors, behind the walls of these prisons, and people don’t see that. And that brutality is also very disturbing. And I don’t believe that most Americans would support it.”
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