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.