Since taking office in January, 20 DACA recipients have been arrested or detained by ICE in President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. DACA, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, is an Obama-era policy granting a special status to immigrants brought into the country as children that protects them from deportation as long as they “stay out of trouble.”
Yaakub Vijandre, a Dallas-area DACA recipient, says he was getting ready to leave for his job as a mechanic when six vehicles pulled up outside his home. Federal agents jumped out, one of them pointed a gun at Vijandre, and he was arrested.
The reason for his arrest: posts he made on social media.
From reporting by AP News:
“In response to questions about any changes, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin issued a statement saying that people “who claim to be recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) are not automatically protected from deportations. DACA does not confer any form of legal status in this country.” DACA recipients can lose status “for a number of reasons, including if they’ve committed a crime,” she said.
“McLaughlin also claimed in a statement that Vijandre made social media posts “glorifying terrorism,” including one she said celebrated Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaida’s leader in Iraq who was killed in a U.S. strike in 2006.
An attorney for Vijandre, Chris Godshall-Bennett, said Vijandre’s social media activity is “clearly” protected speech. He also said the government has not provided details about the specific posts in court documents.”
The Trump administration has changed their procedures for DACA and immigration more broadly to include vetting of social media posts for visas, green cards, and citizenship. The administration also deported foreign students for their participation in campus protests against the genocide in Gaza.
For a time following the assassination of Charlie Kirk, someone could be denied a visa for any social media posts they claimed spoke negatively about Kirk or that “celebrated” his death.
More from AP News:
“Vijandre is among about 20 DACA recipients who have been arrested or detained by immigration authorities since Trump took office in January.
The administration is seeking to end his DACA status, which could result in him being deported to the Philippines, a home he has not visited since his family came to the U.S. in 2001, when he was 14.”
DACA recipients can lose their status if they are convicted of a felony, significant misdemeanors, like harming others, driving under the influence, or drug possession, or if they are deemed a threat to National Security.
After federal agents arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder and graduate student at Columbia University, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Khalil was a threat to national security due to his involvement in pro-peace protests against the Gaza genocide on campus.
As far as Vijandre, AP News says:
”Vijandre remains in a Georgia detention facility. His attorneys say he received notice two weeks before his arrest that the government planned to terminate his DACA status but that he wasn’t given a chance to fight it.
“I think that the administration has drawn a very clear line and at least for right now, between citizen and noncitizens, and their goal is to remove as many noncitizens from the country as possible and to make it as difficult as possible for noncitizens to enter the country,” Godshall-Bennett, Vijandre’s attorney, said.”
