A 30-year-old man from South Texas was released by federal authorities on Thursday after being deported earlier this year, only to find himself detained once again shortly after his return to the United States.
José Contreras Díaz, who was raised in the Rio Grande Valley, had previously lived in Edinburg under the protections of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). This program allows recipients to avoid deportation and obtain renewable work permits for two years, provided they maintain a clean criminal record.
In a statement released on Thursday, Contreras, who had been detained for approximately a week, expressed his desire to reunite with his wife and two-month-old son in the Rio Grande Valley. “I would not wish what I’ve been through on anyone. They detained me, sent me to a country I barely remember,” Contreras remarked. He added, “They gave me hope — the hope that I could come home, see my family, and hold my son again. Then that hope was taken away.”
Contreras received a notice in December for an immigration appointment scheduled for the following month to discuss his case. However, at the immigration office, agents arrested him and deported him just weeks before his son was born in late February. He explained that agents informed him of a deportation order that had been in place since he was eight years old.
In an interview, Contreras recounted how his mother brought him and his sisters to Texas, turning herself in to an immigration agent at the Texas-Mexico border. Although they were initially released, they missed an immigration court appointment, resulting in a deportation order for the entire family.
After his deportation to Honduras, Contreras sought assistance from immigration attorney Stacy Tolchin. Tolchin filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, which resulted in a federal judge ordering the return of 42-year-old Maria de Jesús Estrada Juárez, another DACA recipient who had been arrested and deported during an immigration appointment.
In Contreras’ case, Tolchin sent a letter to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, arguing that his deportation was illegal because his DACA status remained valid at the time of his arrest. She cited the judge’s ruling in Estrada’s case, which deemed her deportation a “flagrant violation” of DACA protections.
Immigration officials later informed Tolchin that they would facilitate Contreras’ return. However, upon his arrival in Harlingen on April 29, he was immediately arrested by immigration agents and taken into custody at the Port Isabel Detention Center.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had previously indicated that the Trump administration did not consider DACA to be a “form of legal status” in the country. In a statement, DHS asserted that immigration agents still had the authority to deport Contreras, emphasizing that the ultimate outcome would not change: “He will not be able to remain in the U.S.,” the statement read. “Those who are in our country illegally have a choice — they can leave voluntarily or face arrest and deportation.”
Since the Trump administration resumed office, there has been an intensified crackdown on immigrants, including many DACA recipients. From January to November 2025, at least 261 DACA recipients have been arrested, 75 of whom were in Texas. The number of DACA recipients deported during the same period ranges between 86 and 174, as reported by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which provided varying figures to different Democratic members of Congress.
