October 21, 2025 Statement by Yaakub Vijandre’s legal team Yaakub Vijandre is a 38-year-old DACA recipient who has lived in the US since 2001, when his parents legally brought him to this country as a 14-year-old boy. A native of the Philippines, Yaakub has integrated himself into his home community in Dallas, becoming a leading local activist whose photojournalism and videography have become a fixture in the Pro-Palestinian movement. His photography and video work and his prominent social media presence have uplifted the opinions of local Dallas residents expressing their views about US foreign policy, the bipartisan suppression of free speech, and the Trump administration’s utilization of ICE to arrest and detain pro-Palestinian speakers. Early this month, the morning after he filmed a Richardson City Council meeting discussing the unlawful ICE detention of a local Palestinian community leader, Yaakub was himself arrested by ICE at his home. At least six ICE vehicles encircled Yaakub as he was leaving his home for work and with guns drawn, shouted at him to obey their commands, and arresting him. The date of these events was October 7. Shortly after his arrest, he was moved to Bluebonnet Detention Center where he remains detained. DHS claims it may detain and deport Yaakub because it has initiated the process to terminate his DACA. In a Notice of Intent to Terminate DACA, DHS states that the sole basis for attempting to revoke Yakuub’s DACA is his social media posts: – You have been connected to multiple social media accounts, including YouTube @Pagpatuloy, X accounts @yaakub_ira and @ Yaakubira, and Instagram @yaakub_ira, which include posts supporting the Holy Land Foundation 5 (HLF5), who were convicted of providing material aid and support to a designated terrorist organization, Hamas, and Aafia Siddiqui, who is currently serving an 86-year prison sentence for attempted murder and was named as a courier and financier of al-Qaida. It also appears that on Instagram you sought to raise funds for the Ft. Dix 5, who plotted an attack on Fort Dix, New Jersey. Your support for organizations and individuals who are known to engage in acts of terrorism presents public safety, national security concerns, and is a significant negative discretionary factor under the totality of the circumstances analysis. Yaakub’s DACA does not expire until May 2026 and until the termination becomes final, the government lacks the legal authority to deport or detain him. On October 16, DHS issued the following statement: On October 7, ICE arrested Jacob Ira Azurin Vijandre, an illegal alien from the Philippines who was a subject of interest in the Dallas Joint Terrorism Task Force following social media posts glorifying terrorism including celebrating Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a terroristwho swore allegiance to Osama bin Laden in 2004. This illegal alien who overstayed his visa was notified that his DACA status was terminated on September 22, 2025. When you break our laws and advocate for violence and terrorism, you should not be in this country. But Yaakub has broken no law. He makes no apology for expressing his deeply felt opposition to the genocide and to the US government’s inhumane and illegal treatment of those it accuses of terrorism, including at black site torture centers like Guantanamo Bay. Whether one agrees with it or not, the First Amendment protects the speech mentioned by DHS in its statements. Additionally, Yaakub is being punished for refusing an FBI request that he become a confidential informant and spy on the pro-Palestinian movement. He was approached with such an offer in late 2023 and declined. As the administration elaborates a sweeping definition of “domestic terrorism,” the American people must be wide awake to the precedent that ICE is attempting to establish in Yaakub’s case. As a longtime US resident, the First Amendment applies fully to Yaakub. There is no legitimate legal distinction between the type of speech Yaakub engages in and the type of “anti-American” and “anti-fascist” speech that White House policy memos (NSPM-7) now characterize as “domestic terrorism,” and which millions of people expressed by participating in demonstrations across the country in the No Kings demonstrations last weekend. We urge the population to stand up and stop the White House from establishing the precedent that a longtime US resident may be detained for social media posts like those referenced by DHS in this case. It is time to draw a line in the sand. -Yaakub Vijandre’s legal team