A soon as she heard that The Mariachi Brothers had been released from ICE detention in March, eight-time Grammy winning country music star Kacey Musgraves posted on her Instagram, “great so come on the road with me.” Her promise kept, the brothers’ mariachi band opened for Musgraves for three nights in May at the historic Gruene Hall, the oldest continuously operating dance hall in Texas. It was the opening celebration of her tour around her new album Middle of Nowhere. This was a big deal.

The brothers—18-year-old Antonio Gámez-Cuéllar, 15-year old Caleb, and 12-year old Joshua—had been kidnapped by ICE, along with their parents, at an unscheduled hearing in February 2026. They were confined in remote Texas “processing centers” (read concentration camps). The oldest brother Antonio was separated from his two youngest brothers and parents who were imprisoned at Dilley, TX “in horrendous conditions with worms and mold in the food, and a severe lack of medical care.” (CNN, 2025) Their abduction drew national outrage. 

The Gámez-Cuéllar family had filed for asylum in 2023 after the father Luis had been kidnapped by cartel members in Mexico. They had since built their life in McAllen, TX, with the brothers performing in an award-winning mariachi band. In early 2026, the eldest, Antonio, was named the best mariachi trumpet player in Texas. They had complied with all their immigration hearings without fail. At the unscheduled hearing in February, ICE detained them declaring the family “illegal.”

Kacey Musgraves has been outspoken about ICE’s immigration raids. A Mighty Girl’s Post noted the significance of her inviting The Mariachi Brothers to open for her during her May concerts, “She has spoken out against ICE before—in June 2025, she wrote on X, 'If protesters can't wear masks ICE shouldn't be able to either'—but this was something more. This was a country star from Texas handing her stage to three Mexican-American boys in mariachi suits, in a small Texas dance hall, in the middle of a mass deportation campaign.” And this was in Texas with a Christian-fascist governor!

Kacey Musgraves is a rare voice in country music who courageously dares to stand up for immigrants, women’s right to abortion, the treatment of women in the country music industry, as well as the LBGTQ community. In 2013, country music stations refused to play her song “Follow Your Arrow” with the lyrics “So, make lots of noise; Kiss lots of boys; Or kiss lots of girls, if that’s something you’re into… Roll up a joint, or don’t; Just follow your arrow wherever it points.” Though the song was banned by country radio, it was a hit performed live. Gay fans have written that the song changed their folks’ minds about their being gay. In a 2013 interview, Musgraves expounded, “I think even if you don't agree with everything I'm saying, as a human, hopefully you can just recognize that people should be able to do what they want to do and love who they want to love.” In 2019, after Alabama enacted a near-total abortion ban, Kacey Musgraves commented on Twitter, “Sooo what’s gonna happen when one of those Alabama senators knocks up one of his mistresses?”

As humanity heads toward catastrophe driven by the fascist Trump regime, many more voices like hers need to be heard.