{"id":283995,"date":"2026-05-08T05:52:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T05:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/283995\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T05:52:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T05:52:14","slug":"deported-dreamer-released-from-texas-detention-after-ice-brought-him-back-to-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/283995\/","title":{"rendered":"Deported Dreamer released from Texas detention after ICE brought him back to U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"

A 30-year-old DACA recipient who was deported to Honduras in January and later flown back to the United States by Immigration and Customs Enforcement was released from a Texas detention facility Thursday, reuniting with his wife and sisters and meeting his newborn son for the first time.<\/p>\n

Jos\u00e9 Contreras Diaz, who was brought to the U.S. as a child, was held for more than a week at Port Isabel detention facility after arriving on a chartered ICE flight last week \u2014\u00a0despite holding active status under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.<\/p>\n

MS NOW was the first to report the news of Contreras Diaz\u2019s return<\/a> and detainment as the only outlet present with his sisters<\/a> while they awaited his arrival at Harlingen\u2019s airport. The day ended in shock for Cindy Contreras, 28, and Emily Baharona, 20, as they shared the heartbreak and pain of being separated from their brother.<\/p>\n

Contreras Diaz met his newborn son, Mateo, for the first time after his release, when his wife, sisters and brother-in-law picked him up in Brownsville, roughly an hour from their home.<\/p>\n

\u201cJos\u00e9 should never have been detained or deported in the first place because his DACA status was valid, and his parole was granted,\u201d said Stacy Tolchin, Contreras Diaz\u2019s attorney. \u201cIt has been a long and difficult road, but I\u2019m so glad he is home with his family now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tolchin added that her client \u201cwill stay here while he has DACA, just like thousands of other DACA recipients who came here as children and are waiting on a path to become U.S. citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Department of Homeland Security said it deported Contreras Diaz in January based on a removal order issued by an immigration judge more than two decades ago that applied to his family. Contreras Diaz was 8 at the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

DHS has maintained that \u201cDACA does NOT confer any form of legal status,\u201d but federal courts have repeatedly ruled that under current regulation, the program does provide protection from detainment or removal. Immigration judges and federal judges have recently ordered the release and return of multiple DACA recipients.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After ICE detained Contreras Diaz upon bringing him back to the U.S. on a chartered flight, the agency provided no explanation for his detention. DHS also did not explain to Contreras Diaz or his attorney why the Trump administration reversed its decision to deport him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe end result will be the same \u2014 he will not be able to remain in the U.S.,\u201d a DHS spokesperson told MS NOW last week. The department did not immediately respond to questions about his release.\u00a0<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump\u2019s border czar, Tom Homan, did not rule out targeting DACA recipients in his mass deportation campaign, which he has said will continue in full force.<\/p>\n

\tRecommended<\/p>\n

\"MS<\/p>\n

\u00a9\u00a02026 Versant Media, LLC<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 30-year-old DACA recipient who was deported to Honduras in January and later flown back to the United…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-283995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}