‘They attacked my religion, my faith’: Muslim photojournalist detained by ICE speaks out

Ya’akub Vijandre, a Muslim photojournalist, martial arts teacher and first responder who ICE detained in October for posting on social media, told the Guardian that the government is “attacking my faith” and that he was “concerned about the safety” of his family and friends.

Speaking in his first interview from Georgia’s Folkston detention center, the 38-year-old said guards treat detainees “like animals”, yelling at them when they don’t understand English. One guard responded to his request to use the bathroom during a visit to the detention center’s library by telling him, “just piss on yourself”.

The recently expanded facility had a total average population of about 1,650 in early November, according to Trac, an immigration data project at Syracuse University.

Vijandre was picked up by ICE in Arlington, Texas on 7 October applied for asylum on 19 November and had his Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) status revoked on 2 December.

His detention and loss of lawful permission to remain in the US are based on social media posts the federal government links to terrorism. Vijandre and his legal defense team assert his posts were constitutionally protected speech that is being targeted due to Vijandre’s Muslim faith.

Vijandre’s legal team is also trying to get him released from detention while his immigration case is resolved, filing its latest motion in a habeas corpus case late Monday. Habeas corpus is a legal tool that gives a detained person the right to seek a judge’s ruling on whether their detention is unlawful.

Vijandre was born in the Philippines with the legal name of Jacob Ira Azurin Vijandre. He has lived in the US for 24 years, holding Daca status half that time – the Obama-era program designed to protect immigrants from deportation who were brought to the US as children. Daca must be renewed every two years; Vijandre’s most recent renewal was valid through May 2026.

Vijandre’s case highlights the Trump administration’s intensifying approach to characterizing threats to national security and what appears to be a growing number of Daca recipients caught up in its mass deportation plans.

Vijandre’s ordeal began when 10 cars pulled up outside his Arlington home on 7 October and detained him at gunpoint, due to social media posts the federal government saw as “glorifying terrorism”.

The posts referred to several political prisoners, as well as Islam. Samantha Hamilton, staff attorney with Asian Americans Advancing Justice and member of his legal team, said Vijandre’s detention is “a pure speech case … [that] cannot be divorced from Islam, with the government characterizing Ya’akub’s nonviolent speech as terrorism”.

Vijandre has been reporting on rallies and community events dealing with Palestinians and Israel, the “war on terror” and related issues for several decades, often posting on Instagram, where he has nearly 9,000 followers.

His legal team is now in its second month of a constitutional challenge to his detention, after an immigration judge ruled on 3 November that she could not release him on bond. In a 10 November amended habeas corpus petition, Vijandre’s legal team revealed details about that immigration court proceeding, including which social media posts the federal government had singled out and why.

During the hearing, the immigration judge asks Vijandre about a post on the Holy Land Foundation, which she says was “convicted of providing material aid and support to a designated terrorist organization called Hamas”.

Federal prosecutors found the Holy Land Foundation guilty of supporting terrorism in 2008, after an attempt to do so in 2007 ended in a mistrial. The five defendants asserted throughout that the foundation supported community projects and Palestinian orphans. They received sentences ranging from 15 to 65 years. Three of the five have been released.

The post on the case is not quoted in the hearing transcript cited in the amended petition, but Vijandre told the judge: “I have said that they have been wrongfully imprisoned, and that’s all I can recall right now, ma’am.” The judge asks: “[A]re you saying they were wrongfully imprisoned for supporting Hamas?” Vijandre responds that his post was drawing attention to “perceived due-process violations in their prosecution”.

She also refers to a post on Aafia Siddiqui, who received an 86-year sentence in 2010 for allegedly shooting at US military officers in Afghanistan. The Guardian reported on her case at the time.

Several human rights campaigns have sought her release in the last decade-plus, pointing to irregularities in her trial. Her lawyers filed a lawsuit last year alleging she has been subject to rape, sexual abuse and battery.

Again, the hearing transcript does not include Vijandre’s posts on Siddiqui, but the judge asks him what they say. His response: they were “highlighting the conditions that Dr Aafia Siddiqui has suffered in FMC Carswell and also in Guantanamo Bay prison and Bagram Air Base, where rape, and the violation of her detainee rights [sic]”.

The judge goes on to state that the federal government alleges he posted something about the Fort Dix Five – a mid-2000s New Jersey case involving an alleged terrorist plot filled with apparent due process issues also reported on by the Guardian. Of the three posts linked to controversial terrorist cases mentioned in the hearing, this one has not been produced by the federal government, and Vijandre said in the hearing he did not recall posting anything on the case.

Then the judge refers to two posts on Islam, including one where Vijandre “liked” a post containing a quote in English and the Shahada in Arabic – a basic pillar of the Muslim faith. The quote: “Islam today is in dire need of truthful, patient men who are inclined to work hard, who find pleasure in toil and find comfort in pain, quietly translating the needs of this stage into action … ” The government asserts that the quote appeared in a magazine linked to Islamic State.

Another religious post reads: “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 judge questioned Vijandre about the meaning of the phrase “death is our victory”. He explains that the Qur’an “mentions that every soul will taste death, and that God has burdened us with prosperity and adversity, and that it is a test for us, and that this test is to test our gratitude and our patience”.

The judge concluded that she could not make a decision on bond because Vijandre’s posts appeared to run afoul of federal immigration law against “endorsing or espousing terroristic activity or persuad[ing] others to endorse or espouse terroristic activity or support a terrorist organization”.

The Guardian has approached ICE for comment.

Speaking from Folkston detention center, Vijandre said the hearing left him stunned. “I never expected anything like that … being accused of ‘glorifying terrorism’; they attacked my religion, my faith. They boxed me in, cornered me. I’ve seen this in movies … [but] was not expecting my faith to be attacked.”

“This is a rehearsed tactic of Islamophobia,” he added.

In the federal government’s 28 November motion to dismiss Vijandre’s habeas corpus petition, it zeroes in on the post that includes the notion, “death is our victory” as well as the alleged post on the Fort Dix 5. The assistant US attorney asserts that the former demonstrates Vijandre is “endorsing or espousing terroristic activity”, while the latter is evidence he was “soliciting funds for terrorist organizations”.

Hamilton, of Vijandre’s legal team, told the Guardian that not only has the federal government not produced the Fort Dix 5 post, a search through his Instagram account by a friend also produced no such post.

The team’s 8 December motion asserts that “Mr Vijandre’s freedom is critical, but far more is at stake here than one man’s liberty. If Mr Vijandre’s social media posts or photojournalism make him a terrorist, the executive branch’s power to detain individuals within the United States based on speech will know no limits.”

Meanwhile, Vijandre, speaking from Folkston, said he is “concerned about [his family’s] safety … them being accused of what I’m being accused of. With the rise of Islamophobia, ignorant people could use violence against my family.”

He noted that his family history includes a great-grandfather Lorenzo Fabian and grand-uncle Paulino Fabian receiving Congressional Gold Medals posthumously in 2020, for their service during the second world war. Vijandre participated in the medal ceremony with family.

He also shared previously unreported details with the Guardian about his role as part of an emergency team that helped family members of the 67 people killed in the 29 January accident involving a Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines jet in Washington DC – one of the worst air accidents in decades.

A Red Cross-trained first responder, Vijandre was deployed within 24 hours of the accident, and spent the next two weeks assisting one family in particular who were “completely devastated” by losing a loved one.

“Is this someone who glorifies terrorism?”