You are considered a Resident for tax purpose in 2019 assuming you were in the US 183 days or more during 2019.
You were on a J-1 student visa for 10 months for the school year 2016 - 2017. You were exempt for the 2 years 2016 and 2017.
You were only present in 2018 for 14 days on a ESTA Visa. These days can be counted.
In 2019 you arrived on a J-1 Visa as an intern. If you are on a J-1 visa for interns and trainees, there is a rule for J1 nonstudent visas called the 6 year lookback rule. This rule says that if you were exempt for 2 out of the past 6 years, you cannot be exempt again.
You need to start counting your US days of presence for the Substantial Presence Test on the day you arrived in the US in January 2019. If you are in the US 183 days or more, you are a US resident for 2019.
Your employer was correct to withhold FICA taxes. Please see the IRS Alien Liability for Social Security and Medicare.
However, foreign scholars, teachers, researchers, trainees, physicians, au pairs, summer camp workers, and other non-students in J-1, Q-1 or Q-2 nonimmigrant status who have been in the United States more than two calendar years are RESIDENT ALIENS and are liable for social security/Medicare taxes. When measuring an alien’s date of entry for the purposes of determining the two calendar years mentioned above, the actual date of entry is not important. It is the calendar year of entry which is counted toward the two calendar years. Thus, for example, a foreign teacher who enters the United States on December 31, 2012 counts 2012 as the first of his two years as an "exempt individual."
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