SOUTH TEXAS — Hebert Kaleth Ibarra Castro is no longer in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody. U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro announced the 20-year-old’s release in a Facebook post on Saturday, July 11, 2026, following more than two weeks of detention that began with his arrest on June 25 while driving in China Grove.

Castro, who represents Texas’s 20th congressional district and serves on the House Foreign Affairs and Intelligence committees, confirmed Ibarra Castro had been reunited with his wife, Marisol Pantoj. In his post, Castro wrote, “In a country that stands for freedom and opportunity, he deserves a fair chance at the American Dream.”

Pantoj said her husband entered the U.S. legally on a B-2 visa when he was 4 years old, fleeing violence in Monterrey, Mexico. She stated that the visa expired in 2020 and that the couple had been working to obtain his green card, assembling a 178-page application that included “sponsorship, birth certificates, IDs, passports, pay stubs” and a marriage evidence folder.

While detained in a South Texas facility, Ibarra Castro was asked to sing the national anthem, according to Pantoj. She recounted that he had said, “I don’t understand why they asked me to sing a song of the land of the free when they chained me up like an animal.” ICE disputed this characterization, with a spokesperson stating that Ibarra Castro “volunteered to perform the national anthem for other detainees and contract staff at the detention center during a Fourth of July talent contest.”

ICE added that the performance was part of broader efforts to promote positive engagement through voluntary activities and that Ibarra Castro received no compensation, participating “simply because he enjoys singing.” The agency also asserted that he “entered the United States illegally,” contradicting Pantoj’s account of his legal entry as a child.