Júnior Pena, a Brazilian influencer known for publicly supporting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), was detained by the agency on January 31 in New Jersey.
Pena, whose full name is Eustáquio da Silva Pena Júnior, according to Brazilian media, was in the middle of his legalization process, but his missing status at a scheduled hearing led to his detention.
He has 1.3 million followers on TikTok and around 500K on Instagram, with his content focusing on depicting life in the States from an immigrant’s perspective. In one of his 2025 pro-Trump and pro-ICE videos, Pena urged Brazilians to remain calm, claiming that those being targeted by authorities were “crooks.”
