Two brothers who helped make their faculty’s mariachi band well-known have been launched from ICE custody Monday, reunited with their mother and father after the household was detained in separate immigration holding services.
Antonio Gamez-Cuellar and his youthful brother Caleb are a part of Mariachi Oro, a band from McAllen Excessive College in Texas, featured in a 2023 Netflix documentary about their quest to win a state championship.
Antonio was first chair trumpet participant in all of Texas. Simply final summer season, Mariachi Oro carried out at an occasion on the U.S. Capitol. A congresswoman spoke in regards to the band’s accomplishments in a speech on the Home flooring with a photograph of the scholars behind her.
“Your group is so, so happy with your exhausting work, your expertise and your dedication,” mentioned U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz (R-TX).
The band additionally toured the White Home.
Then, final week, the Trump administration detained Antonio and Caleb, together with a 3rd youthful brother who additionally performs mariachi, and their mother and father.
They’d come to the US from Mexico in 2023, claiming asylum, coming into via authorized means arrange at the moment. However DHS informed Scripps Information the legislation requires asylum seekers to attend in detention whereas the asylum course of performs out.
ICE positioned Antonio, 18, in an grownup detention middle other than his household. Caleb and one other youthful brother have been with their mother and father on the Dilley Household Detention Heart, a for-profit lockup the place Scripps Information has uncovered complaints about lack of medical care and in regards to the meals and ingesting water.
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Pediatrician Laura Jones is main an effort amongst healthcare employees, calling for the discharge of all kids held at Dilley, some for months and months.
“There actually isn’t any purpose to be inflicting hurt to kids. We’re traumatizing them. We’re harming them, and it isn’t justified, and it ought to finish,” Jones mentioned. “And I believe that when you take the politics out of it, that is actually not a controversial challenge.”
The household was launched Monday after members of Congress, Republican and Democrat, spoke out.
“They have been ecstatic. They have been crying. They have been excited to be reunited with their son and brother, Antonio, who was being held individually in Raymondville,” mentioned U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX). “However their mother saved asking, ‘What did we do flawed? We adopted all the foundations. We went to courtroom, we haven’t performed something flawed.’”
