Muslim Legal Fund of America
Contacts:
Marium Uddin
(972) 331-9021
Chris Godshall-Bennett
202-240-8496
Press inquiries: [email protected]
Website: MLFA.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 21, 2025
ICE ARRESTS DACA RECIPIENT & LONGTIME US RESIDENT BASED ON SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS IN VIOLATION OF FIRST AMENDMENT
Dallas, TX – Three weeks ago, ICE agents arrested 38-year-old DACA recipient and photojournalist Yaakub Vijandre at gunpoint outside his home in the Dallas area. Yaakub’s detention raises fundamental First Amendment questions. He has played a significant role in documenting the pro-Palestinian movement in Dallas in recent years and has become a prominent opponent of the unjust detention of Muslim community leaders. The very night before his unlawful arrest, Yaakub had been covering a Richardson City Council meeting where residents spoke out against ICE’s unlawful detention of Palestinian community leader and MLFA client Marwan Marouf. Now he, too, is behind bars.
Originally from the Philippines, Yaakub has lived in the US for over 20 years, arriving here lawfully at age 14 in 2001. He has no criminal record. His grandfather and great uncle both served in the U.S. military during WWII and are recipients of the Congressional Gold Medal.
The case will test the constitutionality of the Trump administration’s expanding definition of “terrorism.” The Department of Homeland Security acknowledges in legal filings that it detained and arrested Yaakub solely for his social media posts, including those criticizing U.S. foreign and domestic policy, calling for opposition to the genocide in Gaza, and expressing opposition to inhumane prison conditions, including for those accused or convicted of terrorism.
Yaakub is a part of “the people” to whom the First Amendment applies. He has made clear he believes resistance to genocide is justified. He makes no apologies for his photojournalism, his activism, or his speech—which are unquestionably protected by the First Amendment. The government accuses Yaakub of “terrorism” in order to expand the definition of “domestic terrorism” to sweep in dissent. In Yaakub’s case, the detention is also retributionary. In 2023, the FBI urged Yaakub to become an informant, pressuring him to spy on the Dallas community and the pro-Palestine movement. He refused.
In his efforts to secure his freedom, Yaakub is represented by the Muslim Legal Fund of America (MLFA), Eric Lee and Chris Godshall-Bennett of Lee & Godshall-Bennett, LLP, Maria A. Kari (Project TAHA), Shamaila Malik of Malik Law Firm PLLC and others.
Marium Uddin, MLFA Legal Director, said, “The government is making immigration law the First Amendment’s henchman: weaponizing the first to stifle the second. The government cannot claim to champion democracy abroad while criminalizing political dissent at home. This is not about national security; this is about dictating what can and can’t be said and threatening consequences for those not falling in line. When the right to speak becomes conditional on immigration status, it ceases to be a right at all. ‘First they came for the Socialists.’”
Eric Lee of Lee & Godshall-Bennett, LLP said, “By detaining a pro-Palestinian photojournalist and attempting to revoke his DACA because of social media posts, Trump is trying to overturn the Supreme Court’s ‘Brandenburg test,’ which says that speech cannot be punishable unless it is aimed at inciting imminent lawless action. Yaakub’s speech does not meet this test. It consists of statements expressing deep opposition to the genocide of the people of Palestine and to the US government’s decades-long brutalization of victims of its ‘War on Terror’ in blacksite prisons like Guantanamo and Bagrahm. Americans must ask themselves: If Yaakub’s speech constitutes ‘domestic terrorism,’ might not theirs, too?”
“The First Amendment doesn’t care if the government likes what you have to say or not,” said Chris Godshall-Bennett of Lee & Godshall-Bennett, LLP. “Indeed, it exists precisely for when the government does not. People cannot be punished for their protected speech. Period. We allow the decay of this fundamental principle at our peril. We must draw the line now before we all find ourselves on the other side of it.”
Maria A. Kari of Project TAHA added, “This administration’s decision to deploy ICE agents to abduct at gunpoint a DACA recipient with no criminal history because he criticized U.S. policy is the logic of authoritarianism, not democracy. This extraordinary, unprecedented assault on the First Amendment and the rule of law should terrify every American—regardless of their political orientation—because an assault on one person’s right to speak and think freely threatens to stifle peaceful protest, advocacy, and journalism across the country. We cannot allow this administration to continue using heavy-handed, law-enforcement tactics and the machine of immigration enforcement to go after speech it does not like.”
ABOUT: We envision an America where constitutional rights and liberties are not mere promises on paper but lived realities, upheld fiercely and equally for everyone, irrespective of ethnicity, religion, or cultural heritage. At MLFA, we champion this vision and mission at the highest levels of our nation’s legal system, relentlessly safeguarding and asserting the rights of American Muslims and their institutions. Our commitment is unyielding as we vigorously challenge injustice within constitutional and national security law at the federal level, empowering our communities to thrive with dignity, resilience, and equal protection under the law.
