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RAYMONDVILLE — Juan Rodriguez stood outside the El Valle Detention Center and watched as U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz escorted Antonio Gámez-Cuéllar, a McAllen teenager who had been detained there for 12 days.
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Rodriguez was one of several demonstrators protesting Gámez-Cuéllar’s detainment. He took an interest in the teenager’s case because his fiancée is being held in the same facility and has a similar legal status.
The Gámez-Cuéllar family’s surprise detainment sparked nationwide outrage, propelled by the fact that they were detained while complying with a requirement to check in with the government — and because the brothers were part of an award-winning high school mariachi group who were invited by De La Cruz to perform at the U.S. Capitol last summer.
As Rodriguez watched Gámez-Cuéllar jump into a car to reunite with his loved ones, he wondered if the woman he hoped to marry, who sat behind the same walls that Gámez-Cuéllar did, would receive the same help despite no starpower or direct connection to the congresswoman.
“It’s really unfair that only the chosen few get selected. She’s in the exact same situation,” Rodriguez said.
Following an intense public backlash, De La Cruz, a Republican from Edinburg, worked to secure Gámez-Cuéllar’s release from El Valle, while a delegation of congressional Democrats, led by U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, secured the release of his family held at the detention center in Dilley.
“This is about our community coming together for, not only their family, but other families who are in similar situations,” De La Cruz said earlier this week outside the detention center.
De La Cruz has stopped short of pledging to work to release more migrants.
Like Gámez-Cuéllar and his family, Rodriguez’s fiancée Johanny Lacruz, was allowed to enter the U.S. to seek asylum. She followed the rules and has no criminal record, Rodriquez said, yet she was detained in February.
De La Cruz’s aid and comments over the Gámez-Cuéllar’s arrest highlighted the many other individuals — including Lacruz — who have been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement despite pending asylum claims and lack of criminal history. ICE has arrested scores of people like them as part of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts.
Many migrants believed they were following the right protocols to stay in the country. But more and more are finding that that has not shielded them from arrest.
“They’re detaining everyone everywhere,” said Carlos M. Garcia, an immigration attorney representing Gámez-Cuéllar.
De La Cruz’s Democratic colleagues — as well as her political rival for the South Texas congressional seat, Bobby Pulido — called her actions a political stunt and her comments hollow.
De La Cruz has walked a fine line between supporting tougher immigration enforcement and the understanding that the nation’s laws are out of date and cannot account for the millions of people in the country who do not have permanent status. She has voted to increase funding for Trump’s deportation efforts as well as authored a variety of legislation that would create new pathways for people to work in the country legally. Those proposals have gained little traction.
De La Cruz declined an interview for this article.
“Fixing our broken immigration system is a top priority,” De La Cruz said in a statement. “Since I arrived in Congress, I have put forward policy solutions, including my Bracero Program 2.0 Act, my Fair Wages for Farm Workers, and my Texas Dreamer Work Authorization Act, to bridge the gap and bring stability to the immigration process.”
“She never committed any crime”
Rodriguez planned to propose to Lacruz on Valentine’s Day at the top of the Tower of the Americas in San Antonio. But 10 days before he was set to pop the question, a routine stop at the U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint in Falfurrias upended their lives.
Rodriguez, a 36-year-old man from Mission, met 28-year-old Lacruz in the fall of 2023, just after she arrived in the U.S.
Lacruz, from Venezuela, had entered the U.S. in November 2023 at the Brownsville port of entry. She was allowed entry after she secured an appointment for her asylum case through the CBP One app, created by the Biden administration.
She left her home country out of fear for her life, Lacruz wrote in a declaration she submitted as part of her asylum application, which The Texas Tribune reviewed. She said she began receiving threats to her and her family due to her political activism as part of Voluntad Popular, a self-described progressive and social-democratic party in Venezuela.
The couple moved around the country together from Mesa, Arizona, to Portland and then Rodriguez’s hometown in the Rio Grande Valley. She became a part of his family, celebrating holidays and birthdays with his children from previous relationships and his mother and sister.
On Feb. 4, the couple stopped at the border patrol checkpoint in Falfurrias on their way to San Antonio.
The checkpoint, located more than 70 miles north of the border in Brooks County, is a required stop for people traveling from the Valley to the major cities like San Antonio, Houston or Austin.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has said it intends to set up two new checkpoints near the border town of Roma.
When passing through a checkpoint, a border patrol officer will typically ask travelers whether they are a U.S. citizen and where they’re headed.
Lacruz presented her work permit, which is valid until 2030, to the officer that day. The officer asked them to drive over to a secondary revision station, asked Lacruz to exit the vehicle and took her into custody, Rodriguez said.
She was detained a month before she was scheduled to appear in court for her asylum case in March.
He’s frustrated that Lacruz has been in ICE detention for more than a month while the Gámez-Cuéllar seemingly received preferential treatment.
“She never committed any crime,” Rodriguez said. “She had her driver’s license. She had everything in line, all her ducks were in line — she had a job, she did her taxes and everything, everything, everything, and they detained her.”
He remains in constant contact with her. She’s told him that detainees are not fed enough and are slow to receive medical assistance.
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed Lacruz’s arrest at the Border Patrol checkpoint. As with the Gámez-Cuéllar family, a DHS spokesperson said she entered the country illegally and was released by the Biden administration.
“All of her claims will be heard by an immigration judge and she will receive full due process,” the DHS spokesperson said. “She will remain in ICE custody.”
“Nobody is safe”
Trump and his allies had promised during the 2024 election that they would be targeting criminals for deportation, but his administration has increasingly arrested people with no criminal history. Such individuals now make up about 74% of people being held in ICE detention, according to the Transactional Research Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, which uses Freedom of Information Act requests to track immigration cases.
This includes people who entered the country based on a claim of asylum, like Lacruz and the Gámez-Cuéllar family.
In May, ICE began arresting people who showed up to court hearings or to a check-in appointment with an immigration official.
“Nobody is safe right now,” said Garcia, the immigration attorney.
It appears those appointments are not occurring soon enough for ICE. The agency has started issuing “call-in” letters requesting that people meet with immigration officials earlier than their previously scheduled appointment, Garcia said.
That is what happened with the Gámez-Cuéllar family. They showed up to their appointment with ICE as requested by the “call-in” letter and were detained soon after.
“When they show up to their check-in, in compliance with this call-in letter, they are being detained,” Garcia said. “They’re suffering the consequences of complying.”
Garcia said he started noticing ICE was issuing more of these letters about two months ago.
“I have not seen the number of call-in letters that have been sent out by ICE like this ever,” Garcia said.
ICE detainments of people with no criminal record has jumped by 2,450% since Trump took office, according to the American Immigration Council. Among those being detained are individuals who were supposed to be protected from deportation through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, an Obama-era program meant to shield people who were brought into the country as children, Garcia said.
“These are people who are not a flight risk, people who are not a danger to the community,” Garcia said.
People who entered the country through the CBP One app, like Gámez-Cuéllar and Lacruz, are being classified as “arriving aliens,” who cannot ask an immigration judge to release them on bond, according to U.S. immigration law.
This leaves them at the mercy of ICE who can decide to release them on parole.
“ICE has that discretion and they should use that discretion,” Garcia said.
“She’s scared”
De La Cruz called for immigration enforcement policies that simultaneously secure the border, make communities safer and are ultimately “common sense.”
“These two things do not have to be in contradiction,” she said following Gámez-Cuéllar’s release on Monday.
De La Cruz has faced criticism for voting for Trump’s signature funding bill, dubbed the “Big Beautiful Bill,” which gave ICE more funding for its immigration crackdown. As those efforts have increased, especially in South Texas, the Republican has responded to concerns about how immigration enforcement has impacted communities within her district which sits along the border and is more than 80% Hispanic.
Last fall, members of the construction industry spoke out on the challenges their industry is facing due to a shortage of workers caused by immigration enforcement. After meeting with them in January, De La Cruz said she would favor a legal status for construction workers.
She also proposed legislation that would streamline the application process for agricultural workers employed through the H-2A program, though the changes proposed would also lead to a wage cut for many such workers.
Since Monday, Rodriguez has asked De La Cruz’s office to help Lacruz. He has sought assistance from Pulido, the Democrat.
At the same time, Lacruz is considering a voluntary departure, hopefully to Mexico — an option available for people to avoid having an order of removal placed on their record which could help preserve their ability to re-enter the U.S.
The couple intends to marry, and Rodriguez refers to Lacruz as his fiancée. If Lacruz were to agree to a voluntary departure, he would remain in the U.S. for work but would visit her until she could return, he said
“She’s scared,” Rodriguez said. “Hopefully, they’ll send her to Mexico, to the border, and then we can continue our process there.”
But he’s holding out hope that De La Cruz or someone in power could help bring attention to Lacruz’s case.
“If [she] is in the exact same boat that [Gámez-Cuéllar] was in but he can get out because he’s famous but she can’t get out because she’s not famous,” Rodriguez said, “that’s just unfortunate.”
Reporting in the Rio Grande Valley is supported in part by the Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas, Inc.