Two months after being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in South Texas, the Mariachi Brothers will serve as the opening act for country star Kacey Musgraves during a string of shows in the Lone Star State.
Musgraves announced the surprise collaboration with the Gámez-Cuéllar brothers — Antonio, 18, Caleb, 15, and Joshua, 12 — in a Tuesday morning Instagram post. They will open for the “Space Cowboy” singer at the famed Gruene Hall in New Braunfels, Texas, on May 3, 4 and 5.
The brothers were members of McAllen High School’s prestigious Mariachi Oro band, which is one of the most decorated youth mariachi groups in the country. The band has performed in such illustrious venues as New York’s Carnegie Hall and the U.S. Capitol.
The Gámez-Cuéllar family first made news when the brothers and their parents were detained by ICE on Feb. 25 after a routine immigration check-in. The eldest brother was sent to a detention center in Raymondville, Texas, while the rest of the family was sent to Texas’s notorious Dilley Immigration Processing Center.
Department of Homeland Security officials told the Associated Press at the time of the detainment that only their parents, Emma Guadalupe Cuéllar Lopez and Luis Antonio Gámez Martinez, were meant to go into detention — but that they “chose” to take their children with them. DHS also claimed they had illegally entered the U.S. near Brownsville, Texas, in 2023.
In an interview with the New York Times, the family’s patriarch refuted the DHS claim, maintaining that the family had entered the country legally through an asylum claim.
After the family was detained, Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro of San Antonio posted a video on Instagram denouncing ICE’s actions.
“Donald Trump said he was going after criminals,” Castro said in the social media clip. “[These kids] were safe enough to tour the White House. And yet, the Trump administration has them sitting in a prison.”
Outrage also came from the other side of the political aisle, with Rep. Monica De La Cruz, a Texas Republican, condemning the family’s situation.
“The Gámez-Cuéllar family’s story breaks my heart. South Texans know better than anyone that we can secure our border and still treat people with dignity — these are not competing values,” De La Cruz said in a statement. “I have repeatedly urged that enforcement target those who actually threaten our communities, not good, law-abiding, talented people who are working through the legal process.”
On March 9, all members of the family were released from detention after the mounting public press campaign.
Following their release, Musgraves — a longtime fan of the many musical stylings of Mexico — reposted an article about the brothers being freed with the caption: “Great so come on the road with me.”