The crowd went wild when the three G\u00e1mez-Cu\u00e9llar brothers and their father took the stage on Sunday night.<\/p>\n
It was no ordinary concert. Two months ago, the brothers and their father, all musicians, were being held in federal immigration detention centers. Now, dressed in black mariachi suits, they were opening for the country music star Kacey Musgraves in New Braunfels, Texas.<\/p>\n
Just before they went on, the family uttered a prayer of thanks. \u201cThank you, Father, for giving us this great opportunity,\u201d Antonio Yesayahu G\u00e1mez-Cu\u00e9llar, 18, addressed God, as he stood next to his 15-year-old brother, Caleb G\u00e1mez-Cu\u00e9llar; their 12-year-old brother, Joshua G\u00e1mez-Cu\u00e9llar; and their father, Luis Antonio G\u00e1mez. \u201cWe ask you, Father, to protect us and bathe us in your light.\u201d<\/p>\n
In early March, the G\u00e1mez-Cu\u00e9llar family became snarled in President Trump\u2019s mass deportation campaign. Their detention by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents drew widespread and bipartisan outcries<\/a> that led to the family\u2019s release<\/a> from an immigration facility in Dilley, Texas. The oldest sibling, Antonio, was released from a separate detention center near the border.<\/p>\n Shortly after the family was released, Ms. Musgraves extended an invitation to the brothers on Instagram: \u201cgreat so come on the road with me.\u201d<\/p>\n Antonio and Caleb, along with their younger brother, Joshua, all renowned mariachi players from McAllen, Texas, jumped at the opportunity to open three shows for Ms. Musgraves with their father. The performances on her Middle of Nowhere tour began Sunday and will continue for two more days at Gruene Hall in New Braunfels, northeast of San Antonio. The venue is a whitewashed building that resembles a small church and considers itself the oldest continuously operating dance hall in Texas.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were honored to be invited,\u201d their mother, Emma Guadalupe Cu\u00e9llar L\u00f3pez, said. At the concert, Antonio belted out a Spanish-language rendition of Frank Sinatra\u2019s \u201cMy Way\u201d to applause and cheers.<\/p>\n Moments earlier, he whistled Michael Jackson\u2019s song \u201cThriller,\u201d as he helped his younger brother Joshua adjust his bright red mo\u00f1o charro, a mariachi tie. Their father kissed Joshua\u2019s forehead as encouragement.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is wild to believe that we went from being in such a dark place to opening a show for one of country\u2019s biggest stars,\u201d Antonio said.<\/p>\n Last June, Representative Monica De La Cruz, Republican of Texas, invited the brothers to perform at the U.S. Capitol with their bandmates and then visit the White House. Antonio was crowned the best mariachi trumpeter in Texas earlier this year.<\/p>\n For the last three years, the family lived a version of the American dream, in a part of the country where mariachi music is central to public education and border culture.<\/p>\n The G\u00e1mez-Cu\u00e9llar family entered the United States in 2023 at the border crossing in Brownsville, Texas, on an asylum claim and settled in nearby McAllen. Mr. G\u00e1mez, the father, said his family had fled San Luis Potos\u00ed, Mexico, where cartel members had kidnapped him.<\/p>\n Their immigration status remains in limbo, pending future court dates, he said.<\/p>\n The family members said they had followed the law by attending every court date and had a check-in with ICE officials in January. Initially, they said, they were told to return in June, but then the family received an unexpected call from ICE saying that they needed to check in on Feb. 25. They were swiftly detained.<\/p>\n In interviews before the show, family members described being held in deplorable conditions at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, a sprawling jail fashioned out of trailers that serves as the country\u2019s largest family immigration detention site.<\/p>\n Mr. G\u00e1mez said he tried not to think about the moment his oldest son was handcuffed and transferred to another detention center near the border, \u201clike if he was a criminal,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was very painful.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe are happy to be together again, far from there,\u201d Ms. Cu\u00e9llar Lopez added.<\/p>\n