The right-wing Brazilian influencer who claimed Donald Trump's immigration crackdown only targeted "criminals" was arrested by ICE agents in New Jersey.
Junior Pena, whose full name is Estacio and Silva Pena Junior, expressed his support for the US President in his latest video message sent to his hundreds of thousands of social media followers.
I support Donald Trump - I like this guy", proclaimed the South American TikToker and Instagrammer whose account claims to "show the reality of the United States" from a migrant's perspective.
In a previous video, Pena reportedly urged Brazilians to stay calm and not "be disappointed" after reports that ICE agents were arresting migrants, including Brazilians. "But they're all criminals. All of them", he claimed falsely about the migrants arrested.
On Saturday, Pena was reportedly arrested and taken to the Delancy Hall detention center in Newark, New Jersey. One friend told the Brazilian Times newspaper that Pena was arrested for missing a court hearing. The detainee's lawyer, Andrew Latariuro, reportedly tried to resolve the situation and prevent his transfer to another state.
The Brazilian influencer is reportedly living in the US since 2009 and is originally from Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais, from where a large number of people emigrated to the US and Europe.
Pena uses his social networks to amplify stories of migrants, as well as critical voices against Brazil's leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and those supporting his recently imprisoned former right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, who is Trump's ally.
The estimated 2 million Brazilian community in the US has been heavily affected by Trump's anti-immigration offensive, with the number of deported Brazilians reaching a record 2,785 last year, compared to 1,640 so far in 2024.
In a recent report on Trump's ongoing "storm" Veja warned readers: "The atmosphere of fear is in the streets, where anyone who looks like a "foreigner" can be a target... regardless of their [immigration] status."
The magazine said Brazilian migrants in cities like Boston are taking extreme "survival tactics", including not speaking Portuguese in public and trying to look like "average Americans" when leaving their homes.
Brazil's leftists flocked to Pena's Instagram account to mock him after his arrest went viral. "You supported Trump and ended up experiencing the consequences", wrote one. "What goes around, comes around", posted another critic.
The influencer's friends posted messages asking his followers to pray.
