ICE Caged This Man For His Instagram Posts And Likes

A FEW WEEKS AGO, FOREVER WARS highlighted the ordeal of Yaa’kub Ira Vijandre, a DACA recipient whom ICE took into custody at gunpoint a month ago for nothing more than expressing support for U.S. foreign policy targets—and he alleges, for refusing to become an informant. A new filing in Vijandre's case makes it clear that he's every bit as much a political prisoner as the people he posted about. 

Vijandre, a photojournalist from Arlington, Texas, has been held by ICE since Oct. 7 for nothing more than his Instagram posts and likes. According to a habeas corpus petition his attorneys filed yesterday, those posts called attention to the dubious convictions of War on Terror targets like the Holy Land Foundation Five, the Fort Dix Five and the internationally infamous case of Aafia Siddiqui, whom the U.S. wants us to believe lethally overpowered her U.S. military captors in Afghanistan. Another post of his contended that Palestinian armed resistance against Israel is justified. Still another post contained an excerpt from the Shahada, the creedal declaration of Islam. Vijandre, a Muslim, didn't even post it. He just Liked that one. 

"Respondents are detaining Mr. Vijandre because he was engaged in speech on matters of vital public concern—opposing Israeli military actions in Gaza, opposing U.S. government treatment of prisoners, and calling attention to perceived due-process violations in the prosecution of individuals accused or convicted of terrorism," his attorneys write in their Nov. 10 petition. 

Caging Vijandre for his disfavored speech places him in the company of Mahmood Khalil, Rümeysa Öztürk, Leqaa Kordia and Mohsen Mahdawi, all recent political prisoners targeted in 2025 for their support of Palestine. It underscores that anything noncitizens say, post or hit the Like button on that advocates for causes disdained by the Trump administration can be treated as a deportable threat to "national security." This emergent reality clearly reflects the lineage of the War on Terror. 

The Nov. 10 petition, obtained by FOREVER WARS, cites a DHS deportation officer, Lonnie Felps, who identified three posts as the basis for a September move to strip Vijandre of his DACA protections. "Based on my investigation and analysis of the social media related to VIJANDRE and other information, I believe VIJANDRE supports terrorist ideology and terrorist individuals, and, therefore, presents a threat to the national security interests of the United States," Felps declared on Oct. 24. 

One of those Instagram posts—again, Liked by Vijandre, not posted by him—contained the Shahada and an unattributed quote that Felps randomly claimed "originates from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Iraq in 2006." The second was an X post from October 2024 that said simply, "A Warrior of Islam can never be assassinated for DEATH IS OUR VICTORY!! It is the inescapable process for us to meet Allah; what is more victorious than that!!" The third is "a martial arts training video" on Instagram about defending against a home invasion under Texas' Stand-Your-Ground law. 

All were posted—or Liked—before Vijandre received his Notice of Intent to Terminate (NOIT) his DACA status in September 2025. That was the result of  previously-reported attention he drew from the Dallas Joint Terrorism Task Force, which explicitly cited Vijandre's posts in favor of the Holy Land Foundation Five, Siddiqui and the Fort Dix Five in the NOIT.  

Vijandre, whom ICE has moved to a facility in Georgia, went before an immigration judge, Suzette Smikle, on Nov. 3. Without notifying Vijandre's attorneys, a DHS lawyer argued that Vijandre was subject "to mandatory detention" beyond Smikle's purview. Smikle proceeded to take testimony "focusing solely on Mr. Vijandre’s social media activity and his attendance at various religious and political public events." After an absurd colloquy in which Smikle asked Vijandre questions like "Did you make any postings about Aafia Siddiq [sic] after this event expressing support for her?"—seriously, click through what we uploaded to DocumentCloud—the immigration judge wrote that she was

very concerned at this point regarding the admissions of the Respondent regarding his Instagram posts, regarding known terrorist organizations or individuals who have been convicted of crimes and have been known or identified as supporting terrorist organizations, including Hamas and Al Qaeda. …Based on the Respondent’s admission to also attending an event in Dallas Fort Worth that apparently purports to be in some way related to political prisoners and then Respondent then interviewing a presenter at that event and then posting that interview on his Instagram page or other social media, it appears that Respondent may be supporting and then sharing to his thousands of followers his support for individuals or organizations believed to be linked to known terrorist organization.

It was left to Vijandre's lawyers to observe, "As a preliminary matter, [the government's] acknowledgment that Mr. Vijandre believes the HLF5, the Fort Dix Five, and Aafia Siddiqui were wrongfully convicted undermines their argument that his posts express support for terrorism." 

Every one of the government's justifications for detaining Vijandre "constitutes protected speech," write his attorneys. It doesn't matter that Vijandre isn't a citizen, since the Constitution makes no mention of its protections extending only to citizens, as courts routinely recognize. His attorneys further charge that as a journalist—Vijandre "uses a professional press pass at public events," they specify—his detention represents a form of prior restraint from disseminating and reporting on the cases and circumstances he highlights. 

Finally, beyond Vijandre's specific case, his attorneys' petition challenges a provision of immigration law—8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(3)(B)(i)(VII), for the completists out there—that renders inadmissible to the U.S. anyone who "endorses or espouses terrorist activity" as unconstitutionally vague.

"None of the justifications provided by the government for Mr. Vijandre’s ongoing detention crosses the line to advocacy that is 'directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action,' such that his speech would fall outside of the First Amendment’s ambit of protection," Vijandre's lawyers write. 

Instead, it displays the lawlessness of the ICE and the Trump administration: the wholesale removal of constitutional protections from unfavored groups. Free Yaa’kub Ira Vijandre. 

TOMORROW, Nov. 12 at 6:30 p.m., come to the Francis Kite Club on Avenue C for an interview I'll conduct with Luke O'Neil for his new fiction collection We Had It Coming and readings from the highly talented writers Kylie Cheung, Edward Ongweso Jr. and Grace Robins-Somerville! Doors at 6. 

And on Saturday at 1 p.m., come to Anyone Comics in Crown Heights for a Hands Off NYC Day of Community Action event featuring me, Greg Pak, Ben Kahn, Fred Van Lente, Wendy Xu, Joe Illidge and other local comics creators as we fold zines and make posters warning against the threat of ICE! 

TODAY THE USS GERALD FORD, the world's largest aircraft carrier, and its associated strike group, entered Latin American waters. Its time-limited arrival means we can expect Trump to make some sort of decision on regime change or other forms of aggression against Venezuela.  

ADAM SERWER just published a piece I won't be able to adequately describe properly, but it's an extended dive into the Tolkien-influenced subculture of Dungeons & Dragons; its recent attempts at correcting for unfortunate racist and misogynist elements in the fantasy universe; and the backlash to that correction from its reactionary fandom, which happens to include Elon Musk and other tech oligarchs. I've heard Adam talk about aspects of this piece over the past year and understood so little I felt like one of us was having a stroke. But it's a lot of fun, covers a stunning amount of cultural ground, and speaks to our current moment in ways that make it feel appropriately pathetic.  

MY FAVORITE DONALD TRUMP QUOTE will always be his immortal 2018 remark that Hurricane Florence was "one of the wettest we've ever seen from the standpoint of water." But now Trump is giving that quote competition. Asked yesterday about the al-Qaeda background of Syrian interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, Trump answered, "People say he’s had a rough past? We’ve all had rough pasts."

THE CUSTOMS AND Border Protection-led reign of terror in Chicago known as Operation Midway Blitz is adopting the patterns of the Afghanistan War and its "Fighting Season" periods of weather-induced combat and lull. It's getting too cold for the valiant men in plate carriers to kidnap the daycare teachers they insist are Dangerous Criminals. [Or to pepper-spray babies in their car seats in the Sam’s Club parking lot.—Sam]