CBP detained Venezuelan physician Dr. Ezequiel Veliz at Texas checkpoint over disputed status

On April 6, 2026, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents detained Dr. Ezequiel Veliz at the Sarita Border Patrol checkpoint in South Texas as he and his husband, Joseph Williams, drove from the Rio Grande Valley to Houston. Veliz, a Venezuelan-born family-medicine resident at Knapp Medical Center in Weslaco who had lived in the U.S. lawfully for about nine years, lost his work permit in late 2025 when the Trump administration terminated Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelan nationals; he had since been pursuing a green card based on his marriage to Williams, a U.S. citizen. Agents took him into custody for processing and transported him to a migrant detention facility in McAllen to await an immigration court hearing. Williams said he waited five hours at the checkpoint before learning his husband had been detained.

CBP later said in a statement that Veliz's pending green card application did not qualify as a valid visa. U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro publicly criticized the detention, saying immigration authorities were "not going after the worst of the worst" but instead targeting a physician who had lived in the U.S. for nine years, was married to a U.S. citizen, and was serving a severely medically underserved region.

Updates

2026-04-16 — Veliz released on $8,000 bond after 10 days in ICE custody [3]

Dr. Veliz bonded out of immigration detention in Laredo on April 16, 2026, ten days after his checkpoint detention. His attorney, Victor Badell, said Veliz has a hearing scheduled in July at an immigration court in Houston and that his marriage to a U.S. citizen gives him options to contest the case; Veliz must check in with ICE before that hearing.