Jacob “Yaa’kub” Ira Vijandre came to the U.S. at age 14 with his father, who had a work visa for a job as an aircraft mechanic. He later obtained legal residency status through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, and has lived in North Texas since 2022.
The life he has built in Dallas is now in jeopardy, his lawyers said, because he exercised his First Amendment right to free speech. Vijandre’s DACA status was revoked last month over social media posts the government contends advocated for terrorism.
Since taking office for his second term, Donald Trump has ramped up immigration enforcement, resulting in increased detainments of non-citizens. Many detainments have been criticized as being retaliatory for speech protected by the First Amendment, as many have had their visas revoked for comments made on social media.
Vijandre’s legal team said his case will test the constitutionality of the Trump administration’s expanding definition of terrorism.
U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement agents detained Vijandre earlier this month, one day after he filmed a Richardson City Council meeting where residents spoke out against the ICE detainment of a Dallas-area Muslim community leader. According to his legal team, six ICE vehicles arrived at his apartment and encircled him. Agents, with guns drawn, arrested him and took him to the Bluebonnet Detention Center in Anson, near Abilene.
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Despite Vijandre’s clean record, the government said his legal residency status through DACA was terminated due to his social media posts.
The revocation of Vijandre’s DACA status and subsequent detainment echoes other recent actions taken by the Trump Administration to detain non-citizens and revoke their visas due to actions normally protected by the First Amendment.
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A hearing in Vijandre’s case on Tuesday was continued until Nov. 6. He will remain in custody, according to one of his attorneys.
Vijandre’s activism and detainment
Originally from the Philippines, Vijandre, 38, converted to Islam a few years ago and found a home in the Dallas-area Muslim community and has become known for his activism.
He has become a fixture at pro-Palestine protests, which he often films. As a self-styled photojournalist, he posts regularly about issues such as the war in Gaza, and makes videos on Filipino martial arts.
Jacob “Yaa’kub” Ira Vijandre seen at a protest in Dallas. Vijandre has been in ICE custody since Oct. 7 after his DACA status was revoked over social media posts.
Eric Lee
With nearly 9,000 followers on Instagram, he became known for his journalism as he documented protests and posted videos on topics like the war in Gaza, the ICE detainment of Arlington woman Ward Sakeik and discussions of the Quran.
At the time of his detainment, Vijandre was working on a documentary about Marwan Marouf, his friend Mohammed Avachi said. Marouf is a Richardson man and Muslim community leader who was detained by ICE in September. Marouf, who has legally lived in the United States for more than 30 years, was detained after his application for a green card was denied.
Marouf is known for his work with the Muslim American Society of Dallas, which includes philanthropy and youth mentorship.
He founded a Boy Scout troop, organized food drives for those affected by the 2021 winter storm, and pushed for a robotics and AI space at MAS Dallas to teach youth about new technology. His detainment by ICE has drawn outcry from the community.
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Despite having never met Marouf, Ayachi said, Vijandre saw the community hurting and wanted to tell Marouf’s story.
“He emphasized that a lot of us feel like we lost a member of our family, and like he wanted to do what he could to help capture that,” Ayachi said.
Vijandre filmed parts of a Richardson City Council meeting on Oct. 6 during which several community members spoke about Marouf’s detainment. The next day, ICE detained Vijandre as he left his apartment to go to work.
According to a statement from DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin, Vijandre’s DACA status was revoked on Sept. 22, the same day Marouf was detained, over social media posts he made “glorifying” terrorism. DHS’s statement said Vijandre was a subject of interest in the “Dallas Joint Terrorism Task Force” after he made the posts, which included the alleged posting of a quote from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant who pledged allegiance to Al-Quaeda and who was killed in 2006.
“When you break our laws and advocate for violence and terrorism, you should not be in this country,” McLaughlin said in the statement.
According to the notice of intent to terminate Vijandre’s DACA status, which was provided to The Dallas Morning News by Vijandre’s legal team, the posts the government cited as “glorifying terrorism” included posts supporting the “Holy Land Five,” five men who were convicted of providing financial support to Hamas in a controversial trial, and Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist labeled “Lady al-Qaeda” by authorities who was accused of acting as a courier for a member of al-Qaeda and convicted of the attempted murder of U.S. soldiers.
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The government also accused Vijandre of seeking to raise funds for the Fort Dix Five, who were convicted of plotting an attack on Fort Dix in New Jersey. Supporters of the Holy Land Five, Siddiqui and the Fort Dix Five have criticized various aspects of their trials and contend each were wrongfully convicted.
Eric Lee, one of Vijandre’s attorneys, said the government has failed to cite specific posts in its allegations. Lee also said he has yet to see the post with the fundraising for the Fort Dix Five.
“In any event, the Fort Dix 5 are not a foreign terrorist organization,” Lee said via text. “And there is nothing illegal about giving or raising money so that peoples’ constitutional rights in U.S. Court proceedings are being protected.”
Vijandre’s lawyers also said he was approached by the FBI in 2023 and asked to become an informant and spy on the pro-Palestine movement. He refused. His legal team contends Vijandre is partly being punished for his refusal.
The First Amendment
The revocation of Vijandre’s DACA status over alleged posts to social media continues a trend of non-citizens being penalized over their speech, particularly through comments made on social media, as six people had their visas canceled last week after they allegedly mocked Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
Mahmoud Khalil, an activist and graduate student at Columbia University, was detained by ICE earlier this year in New York after helping organize pro-Palestine protests at Columbia.
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In a statement, Lee accused the Trump administration of attempting to overturn the Supreme Court decision Brandenburg v. Ohio, which ruled speech can only be punished if it is directed toward inciting or producing imminent lawless action.
“Yaakub’s speech does not meet this test,” Lee said in the statement. “It consists of statements expressing deep opposition to the genocide of the people of Palestine and to the U.S. government’s decades-long brutalization of victims of its ‘War on Terror’ in blacksite prisons like Guantanamo and Bagram. Americans must ask themselves: If Yaakub’s speech constitutes ‘domestic terrorism,’ might not theirs, too?”
Michael Kagan, director of the University of Nevada Las Vegas Immigration Clinic, told The News that the revocation of Vijandre’s DACA status and subsequent detainment over social media posts could be an infringement on his rights, as his DACA status was a legal protection against being deported.
Kagan said the historical understanding of the Constitution and Bill of Rights is that it applies to anyone physically present within the United States, not just to citizens. He said the Trump administration has been pushing to restrict First Amendment rights for non-citizens.
“In general, the Trump Administration is definitely working very hard to repress free speech for non-citizens,” Kagan said. “In fact, they, in some ways, have already created a parallel universe in the United States where anyone who is here, who is not a U.S. citizen, really is not right now enjoying the benefit of the First Amendment.”
DACA
When Vijandre first came to America, he did so legally. His father had found work as an aircraft mechanic, and the two came to the country through a work visa.
That visa expired in 2004, and Vijandre remained in the country. In 2012, he applied for the DACA program, which had been created by the Obama administration that year. The program allows for those who entered the United States as children and are undocumented to remain in the country. Recipients must re-apply every two years; Vijandre was up for renewal in May 2026.
Kathleen Bush-Joseph, an immigration policy analyst with the Migration Policy Institute, said typically DACA statuses are revoked due to accusations of criminal behavior. While DHS’ statement alleged Vijandre broke the law, spokespeople for DHS and ICE did not respond to multiple requests for clarification on what laws Vijandre is accused of breaking. His lawyers contend he has a clean criminal record.
DACA has long been the target of Republicans, who say the program is unlawful. During Trump’s first term, his administration announced plans to phase out the program. The Supreme Court blocked Trump from ending the program in 2020, and President Joe Biden later issued an executive order preserving the program in 2021.
A Texas federal judge ruled the program unconstitutional in 2021. While the program is no longer allowing new applications to be submitted, renewals of existing status are still allowed, according to DHS.
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A joint statement from Vijandre’s legal team, which includes attorneys from the Muslim Legal Fund of America, accused the U.S. government of attacking First Amendment rights through criminalizing political dissent, which they labeled “authoritarianism.”
“We urge the population to stand up and stop the White House from establishing the precedent that a longtime U.S. resident may be detained for social media posts like those referenced by DHS in this case,” the statement said. “It is time to draw a line in the sand.”