Rep. Monica De La Cruz Voted to Triple ICE's Budget. Then It Came for the Mariachi Students She Paraded Around Washington.

In July 2025, Rep. Monica De La Cruz handed ICE the money to build a deportation machine. Seven months later, that machine came for the kids she'd used as props on the House floor.

Antonio Gamez-Cuellar, 18, was first-chair trumpet in the McAllen High School Mariachi Oro -- the same group De La Cruz brought to Washington in summer 2024, put before Congress, and praised for their contributions to Texas culture. On February 25, ICE picked him up at a routine check-in and sent him alone to the El Valle Detention Facility in Raymondville. His parents and two younger brothers, including 14-year-old Caleb, also a mariachi student, went to the Dilley Immigration Processing Center.

The family had entered the United States legally in May 2023 through the CBP One process. They requested asylum after fleeing violence in Mexico. They passed their credible fear screening. They showed up to every check-in for more than two years. They had a final immigration hearing scheduled for September. No criminal record. No missed court dates.

De La Cruz voted to make this happen.

The Vote That Built the Machine

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed in July 2025 with De La Cruz's support. It gave ICE a $75 billion supplement on top of its existing $10 billion budget -- nearly tripling the agency's annual funding. Another $45 billion went to detention expansion, with a stated goal of holding 100,000 people in custody daily. The Trump administration set a deportation target of one million people per year.

Only two Republicans voted against it. De La Cruz was not one of them.

Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, put it bluntly on X: "The reason there isn't 'common sense enforcement' is because Stephen Miller demanded ICE arrest 3,000 people/day. Republicans gave ICE the money to achieve that perverse goal in their 'one big beautiful bill.' Only 2 Republicans voted against the bill. She wasn't one of them."

The Students

Antonio and Caleb were members of Mariachi Oro, a program that has won eight Texas Association of Mariachi Educators state championships and ten consecutive UIL honors. In summer 2024, they played Carnegie Hall. In summer 2025, De La Cruz brought them to Capitol Hill, where they were recognized before Congress and toured the Trump White House.

Antonio had just turned 18 in January. He was months from graduating high school. He was the best trumpet player in the state of Texas.

When the family showed up for their routine ICE check-in on February 25, agents detained all five of them. Antonio went to Raymondville alone. His parents and younger brothers went to Dilley.

The Response

South Texas Democrats moved first. At 11:30 a.m. Central Time on March 7, Rep. Vicente Gonzalez called on every member of the South Texas delegation to fight to keep the family together. At 1:52 p.m., congressional candidate Bobby Pulido posted a video that racked up 5,200 shares: "These mariachi students were good enough for Monica De La Cruz's photo ops. Now they're in detention centers and she's nowhere to be found. South Texas notices."

De La Cruz's office issued a statement at 3:10 p.m. saying it was "closely monitoring" the family's "situation." At 7:11 p.m., her office announced it had "requested a visit" to the Raymondville facility.

The day after the arrest, Antonio's girlfriend Ezra Cavazos reached out to De La Cruz's office. Staff said they would look into it. The next day, they said there was little the office could do, according to the San Antonio Express-News.

One person close to Antonio told the New York Times that his release was delayed until De La Cruz could arrive at the facility for a photo opportunity. Her office denied the claim, saying she had to wait while he was processed and that her presence prevented him from being transferred elsewhere.

The Record

De La Cruz has publicly described her Bracero Program 2.0 Act -- an agricultural guestworker visa reform bill -- as her "top legislative priority." As of late February, it had two co-sponsors.

In recent months, she took constituents to meetings with the Labor Department, the White House, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, urging the administration to focus enforcement on what she called "the worst of the worst."

The South Texas Builders Association was not impressed. Mario Guerrero, the association's executive director, told Politico: "People feel abandoned because you never showed face, and now that there's an actual crisis, you want to show face? It's like, dude, it's a little too late, man." A board member who attended the De La Cruz-Johnson meeting told The Hill it was "just all photo-op" and that he felt "censored," unable to fully voice his concerns.

The construction industry in the Rio Grande Valley has been gutted. Residential construction activity fell 30 percent in Hidalgo County. 57 Concrete filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2025 after a 60 percent drop in business. Materiales El Valle reported $5.3 million in lost sales. Build timelines that once ran three months now stretch to eleven.

De La Cruz funded the enforcement that caused it.

The Bottom Line

The Gamez-Cuellar family did everything the American legal system asked of them. They came through the front door. They showed up every time. Their sons played Carnegie Hall and the Capitol.

And when the government came for them anyway, the congresswoman who had put them on the House floor had already cast the vote that made it possible.

This is what "tripling ICE's budget" looks like in practice. It looks like an 18-year-old first-chair trumpet player sitting alone in a detention facility in Raymondville, months from graduating high school, because the congresswoman who used him for a photo op voted to give ICE the money to take him.

De La Cruz can call it "monitoring the situation" all she wants. She funded the situation. She voted for it. And when it came for the kids she'd paraded around Washington, she took most of the day to respond.