CHINA GROVE, Texas – After U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested Hebert Kaleth Ibarra Castro, 20, on June 25, local lawmakers are trying to get him released and back home.
His wife, Marisol Pantoj, said Ibarra Castro was arrested while driving in China Grove.
“ICE records indicate he entered the United States illegally at an unknown date and time,” an ICE spokesperson told KSAT.
However, Pantoj said Ibarra Castro entered the U.S. legally with a B-2 visa, but his visa expired in 2020.
“He came with a B-2 visa when he was 4 years old,” Pantoj said. “He was fleeing violence from (Monterrey) Mexico.”
In a statement to KSAT, Ibarra Castro’s mom wrote, “When I think about my son being in that ICE facility, it brings back painful memories from 16 years ago when we were forced to flee our home in Monterrey through a window because of a very dangerous cartel.”
State Rep. Barbara Gervin Hawkins, whose district Ibarra Castro lives in, said she plans to work with other lawmakers to see how she can assist.
“These folks are just trying to live their lives,” Gervin-Hawkins said. “We’ve got kids not going to school, we are really traumatizing our community.”
U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, also shared his push to bring Ibarra Castro home via social media.
Pantoj told KSAT that she and Ibarra Castro were working to get him a green card, but the process takes time.
“Very overwhelming,” Pantoj said. “The packet itself was 178 pages. Sponsorship, birth certificates, IDs, passports, pay stubs, we had to develop a marriage evidence folder.”
Pantoj told KSAT that Ibarra Castro was asked to sing the national anthem in the South Texas detention facility he’s being held in. He performed the anthem in front of the warden, according to Pantoj.
“He had said, ‘I don’t understand why they asked me to sing a song of the land of the free when they chained me up like an animal,’” Pantoj said.
Ibarra Castro has a hearing the week of July 6 amid his hopes to return home to his wife soon.
KSAT crew witnesses separate ICE traffic stop
While working on the immigration story with Pantoj on Monday, KSAT obtained video of a separate traffic stop in China Grove. Multiple China Grove police officers arrived in marked units. One silver vehicle that appeared unmarked pulled up with police lights on and put a handcuffed man into the back of the silver vehicle.
KSAT reached out to ICE requesting information on the arrest. An ICE spokesperson said, “Due to our current operational tempo and increased demand for information, we are unable to provide immediate responses to every enforcement action inquiry. To assist in confirming whether this was an ICE operation, we would need visuals.”
After providing ICE with a photo of the stop, the spokesperson told KSAT, “This was not ICE.”
The China Grove Police Department replied to the inquiry later in the evening and said, “During the stop, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was contacted and assumed the encounter. Any further enforcement action was handled by ICE.”
KSAT followed up with ICE shortly after 10 p.m. for an update on the situation and why the spokesperson initially said the arrest was not ICE. The agency did not respond to the follow-up prior to this story’s publication.
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