She Funded the Machine That Took Them.
Rep. Monica De La Cruz voted to triple ICE's budget. Then it came for the mariachi kids she'd paraded around Washington.
WASHINGTON — In July 2025, Rep. Monica De La Cruz, R-Texas, voted to hand ICE $75 billion — effectively tripling the agency’s annual budget to nearly $29 billion per year, with another $45 billion earmarked to expand detention capacity to 100,000 people in custody daily. The Trump administration’s stated goal: deport one million people a year. Only two Republicans voted against it. De La Cruz was not one of them.
Seven months later, that machine came for Antonio Gámez-Cuéllar, 18, and his brother Caleb, 14 — students in the McAllen High School Mariachi Oro, the same group De La Cruz had brought to the United States Capitol the previous summer, put on the House floor, and praised for their contributions to Tejano culture. ICE picked up the entire family at a routine check-in on Feb. 25. No criminal record. No missed court dates. A final immigration hearing scheduled for September.
De La Cruz took most of the day to respond.
Her Vote
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act was the legislative foundation of the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda. De La Cruz voted for it in July 2025.
Under the law, ICE received a $75 billion supplement it can spend over four years, on top of its existing base budget of roughly $10 billion — nearly tripling the agency’s total annual funding. An additional $45 billion went toward detention expansion. Former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said the goal was to hold 100,000 people in custody daily. The Trump administration set a deportation target of one million people per year.
Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, put it directly 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
The Gámez-Cuéllar family entered the United States legally in May 2023 through the CBP One process, requested asylum after fleeing violence in Mexico, passed a credible fear screening, and by all accounts did everything the government asked of them for more than two years.
Antonio and Caleb were members of Mariachi Oro — the McAllen High program that has won eight Texas Association of Mariachi Educators state championships and ten consecutive UIL honors. In the summer of 2024, they played Carnegie Hall. In the summer of 2025, De La Cruz brought them to Capitol Hill, where they were recognized before Congress and toured the Trump White House.
On Feb. 25, when the family showed up to a routine ICE check-in, agents detained all five of them. Antonio — who had just turned 18 the month before — was sent alone to the El Valle Detention Facility in Raymondville. His parents and younger brothers went to the Dilley Immigration Processing Center. He was months from graduating high school. He was first-chair trumpet in the state of Texas.
The Response
South Texas Democrats moved first. At 11:30 a.m. CT on March 7, Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas, 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 would rack 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, Ezra Cavazos — Antonio’s girlfriend — 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, R-La., urging the administration to focus enforcement on what she called “the worst of the worst.”
The South Texas Builders Association wasn’t buying it. 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% in Hidalgo County. 57 Concrete filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2025 after a 60% 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 Gámez-Cuéllar family did everything the American legal system asked of them. They came through the front door. They showed up every time. Their sons played the Capitol and the White House.
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.
Her Grandmothers will come for her…
Abuelitas do not play.
How could De La Cruz vote with a felon who publicly denigrated hard working Mexican people . Vote this immigrant hater out!!