Brazilian influencer Eustáquio da Silva Pena Júnior, who staunchly defended President Trump’s immigration crackdowns on social media, has found himself detained by ICE agents in New Jersey in a stunning twist of fate. Pena cultivated a massive following across TikTok and Instagram, where he used his accounts to showcase what he called “the reality of the United States” from a migrant’s perspective. He has been a resident of the United States since 2009.
Pena was an outspoken supporter of the current administration, declaring his allegiance in a video message to his hundreds of thousands of followers. “I [support] Donald Trump,” he announced, “I like the guy.” The real irony here is that, in an earlier video, Pena reportedly told Brazilians not to “despair” after reports surfaced that ICE agents were rounding up migrants. He claimed, quite falsely, that the people being seized were “all crooks. The lot of them.”
According to a Guardian report, Pena was detained and subsequently sent to the Delaney Hall detention facility in Newark, New Jersey, on Saturday. A friend told a local publication that the influencer was taken into custody after he missed a court hearing. His lawyer, Andrew Lattarulo, is now working quickly to resolve the situation, specifically trying to prevent Pena from being transferred to another state.
Karma hits hard when it wants to
Pena’s political leanings were clear on his social networks. He often echoed voices critical of Brazil’s left-wing president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, while supporting the recently jailed former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, who is a known ally of President Trump. He doesn’t seem to realize that the fear comes from wrongful arrests, like the detainment of 5-year-old Liam Ramos, or the arrest of ChongLy Thao, a naturalized citizen.
Regardless of political alignment, his detention really highlights the intense pressure facing the estimated 2 million-strong Brazilian community in the US. President Trump’s anti-migrant offensive has hit this group particularly hard, with the number of deported Brazilians hitting a record high of 2,785 last year.
The atmosphere of fear resulting from this crackdown is genuinely awful. Reports indicate that there is a palpable sense of apprehension on the streets, where anyone who “looks foreign” can become a target, regardless of their current immigration status. This level of anxiety has forced Brazilian migrants in cities like Boston to adopt drastic “survival tactics.” They avoid speaking Portuguese in public and try to dress like “average Americans” when they leave their homes.
When news of Pena’s detention went viral, the reactions were immediate and highly charged. Left-wing Brazilians quickly flocked to his Instagram account to taunt him, with one person writing, “You supported Trump and in the end you suffered the consequences.” Another critic summed up the schadenfreude perfectly, posting, “What goes around comes around.” Meanwhile, friends of the influencer asked his followers to pray for him during this difficult time.
Published: Feb 3, 2026 08:16 am