Local journalist José Julián, founder of the popular social media page JJ Apineda Noticias, said he was detained and interrogated by Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) on April 19, 2026. After returning from Guatemala, Julián said CBP questioned him for over three hours.
“I have traveled for years, and it’s always just been like ‘Passport, thank you for coming, blah blah blah,’” said Julián, a U.S. citizen who was raised in Guatemala. “But this time, when I gave them the passport, a notification appeared on the screen… and then there were like five or six immigration officers.”
Julián said officers questioned him about his social media page and demanded information about how he regularly documents Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Rhode Island. The Rhode Island ACLU called the incident “extremely disturbing.” This comes after prominent Atlanta journalist Mario Guevara was deported last year after reporting on immigration.
Social Media Monitors Immigration Enforcement
Julián, who works as a driver for Uber and Lyft, started the page a couple of years ago sharing news and information about Providence as well as Guatemala, where he grew up.
“[The page] was first based in putting up content about Guatemala, to be able to show not only the bad things in my country, like the violence there was in Guatemala,” said Julián. “Later, it grew a lot, it started to cover things with ICE. I started to think about how to help Latinos here in the U.S., and I saw all the news about immigration so I tried to think of a way of how to help these people.”
Several videos on the page show masked ICE agents driving around the greater Providence area. In one video with over 1,400 likes and nearly 130,000 views, agents chase after a man in Providence. When Julián also pursued with his camera recording, he said an agent running next to him kicked his foot, tripping him and causing him to fall. In another video filmed outside of the Garrahy courthouse, agents chase someone into the courtyard of Johnson & Wales University’s downtown campus. The officer pulls out a taser and points it in Julián’s direction. However, he says he is not afraid to keep recording.
“When you truly want to help people, I think the risk is imminent…I know that there are a lot of people who are safer in the streets because of the information we pass on,” said Julián. “I have seen more fear in people who have had vehicles waiting outside of their houses. And I have seen first hand, in detention, how they try to intimidate people.”
According to Press Freedom Tracker, a nonpartisan database collecting instances of press freedom violations in the United States, “ICE and its parent Department of Homeland Security have committed nearly 300 press freedom violations since 2017.” Of these incidents, 49 were border stops of journalists in which they were asked about their work, like in Julián’s case.
Interrogation by Federal Agents at Airport
On April 19, Julián was returning to the United States from Guatemala, and arrived at customs in John F. Kennedy International Airport, where he was detained by CBP.
“They said ‘Give me names,’ and I said ‘The name of who?’ [They said] ‘The people who are helping you,’” said Julián. “Perhaps they thought that one has an informant inside [ICE], but in reality no, you have the support of our community, of Rhode Island, of Latinos, of Americans that only speak English, of African Americans that have all helped.”
Eventually, after Julián asked for a Spanish translator, officers let him go.
“And then the person said to me, ‘If you’re not giving information to anyone else, it’s fine,’” said Julián.
Rhode Island ACLU Executive Director Steven Brown called the story “extremely disturbing.”
“It is yet another example of the Trump administration seeking to punish journalists who engage in coverage trying to hold federal officials accountable for their actions,” said Brown. “We consider incidents like this to be a direct attack on First Amendment rights, and should be condemned.”
The Providence Eye reached out to Customs and Border Protection for comment, but they did not respond before publication.
The interview with Julián was conducted with translation help by Julia Ruiz Borys and Benjamin Salinas.
Eric Halvarson is a City News Reporter for The Providence Eye.
Want to comment? Click!