A Rio Grande Valley DACA recipient is back home after being deported to Honduras earlier this year, but he says he fears another deportation is coming.

Jose Contreras-Diaz, an Edinburg DACA recipient originally from Honduras, was deported in January after showing up to an ICE office to reschedule an appointment. 

Contreras-Diaz said he went to the ICE office in Edinburg to ask about moving his appointment in case his son was born sooner than expected. Instead, he ended up in custody.

"They said you're going to be detained and deported after I'm inside and I'm like, 'well dude I came in to ask for an extension this thing's not until the 6,'" Contreras-Diaz said.

He said his parents brought him to the U.S. as a child and he considers the Valley home. Contreras-Diaz found himself in handcuffs on a chartered flight in Harlingen on the way to Honduras.

“I think it is showing the administration that they made a mistake, that they took it a little too far,” Contreras-Diaz said.

After nearly giving up, he contacted an attorney in California.

His attorneys wrote a letter to ICE citing a case where a federal judge ordered the government to return another DACA recipient, Maria de Jesus Estrada Juarez, back to the U.S. Contreras Diaz said that case gave him hope.

Shortly after, "they put the chains back on me and I get shipped back to the U.S," Contreras-Diaz said.

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He landed at Valley International Airport in Harlingen on April 29, 2026, but said he did not get to see his family.

He said officials told him he was going back to Port Isabel, and he returned to detention. His attorney then filed a petition of habeas corpus to get him out of the Port Isabel detention center. He was released on May 7. 

Contreras-Diaz said he missed the birth of his only child while in custody.

"I just missed the most sacred moment with my son," Contreras-Diaz said. “I’m a conservative, myself, but that's what makes me so mad. This is not a right or left issue, these are people's lives.”

When reached for comment, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said Contreras-Diaz will not be able to remain in the country.

"The fact is Jose Contreras Diaz is an illegal alien from Honduras who has a final order of removal from a Department of Justice immigration judge. He chose to remain illegally in the U.S. DACA does NOT confer any form of legal status in this country.

He has been released on an order of supervision with required ICE check-ins. The end result will be the same—he will not be able to remain in the U.S.

We encourage every person here illegally to use the CBP Home app to LEAVE NOW and reserve the chance to come back to the U.S. the right legal way to live the American dream. If not, you will be arrested and deported without a chance to return.”

Contreras Diaz said he is not giving up. He encouraged other DACA recipients to keep renewing their status and continue showing up to their check-ins.

"I'm not going out without a fight," Contreras Diaz said. “I cannot just stand by and let this be.”

He said his hope is to stay in the Valley and raise his family here.

"I would love to spend the rest of that child's life here with him to have some sort of legal status that is just far beyond so delicate that it can be ignored by ICE and then just... bye," Contreras Diaz said.