The Gámez-Cuéllar family has been reunited.
09.03.2026 22:51
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The Gámez-Cuéllar family has been reunited.
McAllen ISD students and their parents are waiting to welcome the Gamez Cuéllar brothers with open arms back home.
Rep. Monica de la Cruz, GOP Dist. 15, who escorted Antonio out, said:
“I challenge my colleagues to work together for new enforcement policies that not only secure our border but make safer communities and that ultimately are common sense. These two things do not have to be in contradiction.”
The 18 year old Mariachi band member, Antonio Gamez-Cuéllar was released this afternoon after his family was detained by ICE last week. He was held separately from his family at a detention center in Raymondville, Texas.
He’s seen here in the maroon shirt.
Story: apnews.com/article/immi...
The Gámez-Cuéllar family has been released from Dilley! We just picked them up.
It’s now past 7 pm and the long lines seen all day at McAllen’s Lark Community Center are closed but anyone in line will get to vote.
Voters have averaged an hour to an hour and a half waiting to cast their ballots.
Story in collaboration with @garanceburke.bsky.social and Adam Geller.
NEW: An uncomfortable but essential read.
We heard about the trauma endured by children in detention at Dilley, including the mother whose child used a plastic knife to hurt herself and the haunting images she created to vent her fears.
“We are all Liam,” one mom said.
apnews.com/article/chil...
The U.S. military used a laser to shoot down a Customs and Border Protection drone, members of Congress said Thursday, and the Federal Aviation Administration responded by closing more airspace near El Paso, Texas.
apnews.com/article/mili...
NEW: Legal advocates filed a motion today seeking to stop CBP agents from urging immigrant youth entering the country without their parents to voluntarily deport themselves under a federal policy introduced September.
Attorneys say it circumvents TVPRA.
apnews.com/article/cbp-...
New campaign from @childrens-rights.bsky.social will let people send encouraging messages to immigrant families at the Dilley detention center:
www.childrensrights.org/l/theyre-rem...
Thank you to everyone who demanded freedom for Liam. We won’t stop until all children and families are home.
Just visited with Liam and his father at Dilley detention center. I demanded his release and told him how much his family, his school, and our country loves him and is praying for him.
NEW: Dozens of detained immigrant families braved the cold outside the Dilley, TX facility to protest conditions and long detentions, sparked by the recent arrest of 5 y.o. Liam Conejo Ramos.
A detainee said the boy & his dad briefly participated.
apnews.com/article/texa...
Media gets ten spaces at today’s trial for former Uvalde schools officer Adrian Gonzales. Spots were allotted after all journalists decided Uvalde’s newspaper should have a permanent seat.
Support local journalism.
(I’ll also be inside. No cells or computers allowed.)
NEW:
A Dec. 1 report from ICE indicated that about 400 immigrant children were held in custody for more than the 20-day limit during the reporting period from August to September. Legal advocates say the government is failing to safeguard children.
apnews.com/article/immi...
NEW: A federal judge issued an order Wednesday requiring the Trump administration to again consider granting protection from deportation to certain vulnerable young immigrants under the Special Immigrant Juvenile status program, also known as SIJS.
apnews.com/article/immi...
JUST IN: ICE didn’t say how much migrants would get or when the offer would take effect, but The AP obtained an email to migrant shelters saying children 14 years of age and older would get $2,500 each. Children were given 24 hours to respond.
apnews.com/article/ice-...
Update: DHS shared a response to today’s decision from Judge Timothy J. Kelly, a Trump appointee.
For context, the government initially claimed Guatemalan parents asked for their kids back to be reunited, but they retracted that last week following contradictory evidence.
Legal advocates with Kids in Need of Defense visited Honduras last week and found government officials and nongovernmental organizations working “furiously” to receive as many as 400 children back from the United States.
New: Judge grants preliminary injunction to block Trump admin from immediately deporting Guatemalan migrant children who came to the U.S. alone back to their home country.
BUT, he did not expand class to cover Honduran children who attorneys believe are targeted next.
apnews.com/article/trum...
New: Bottled water sold for $1.21, dismissed medical pleas and faith tested at family detention facility in Dilley, TX
apnews.com/article/immi...
A week after the U.S. attempted to remove about 80 Guatemalan children in the middle of the night, advocates began hearing they were preparing to do the same this weekend with Honduran children and preemptively sued to block it.
Story ✍️ Leah Willingham
apnews.com/article/immi...
NEW: Chaotic showdown over Guatemalan children exposes fault lines in Trump’s deportation push.
✍️with @ruskygal and Sonia Pérez D.
apnews.com/article/immi...
NEW: Two internal emails obtained by AP indicate a policy shift that now allows ICE to show up, interview, and arrest some parents trying to reunite with their children.
Advocates say it’s using kids as bait; the government says it’s necessary vetting.
apnews.com/article/immi...
Breaking: Judge denied the Trump administration’s request to terminate the Flores Settlement Agreement which protects immigrant children in federal custody.
The judge noted the government made improvements, but attributed them to the agreement.
Story: apnews.com/article/immi...
NEW: A fed judge weighing Trump administration's request to end protections for immigrant children asked the government why time in custody is high despite low crossings.
“It seems counterintuitive that should happen unless it’s willful,” the judge asked.
apnews.com/article/trum...
As the Trump administration intensifies deportation activity around the country, some immigrants — including many who have lived in the RGV for decades — are unwilling to leave their homes, even for necessary medical care.
✍️: AP’s Amanda Seitz/Jacquelyn Martin
apnews.com/article/trum...
NEW: Attorneys sue to restore deportation protections for abused and neglected migrant children
apnews.com/article/immi...
