Overview
- Leo Garcia Venegas, a U.S. citizen and construction worker, reported in a May 4 court filing that ICE officers blocked his car and shackled him during a stop on May 2 in Silverhill, Alabama.
- He says agents ignored his Alabama Star ID, a REAL ID that requires proof of citizenship or lawful status, and kept him restrained for about 15 minutes before verifying him.
- Venegas leads a class-action suit that seeks a preliminary injunction to stop workplace raids that his lawyers say rely on broad sweeps and hold people without specific, individualized suspicion.
- DHS disputes his account, saying he was not detained during what it called a routine stop of a vehicle registered to a noncitizen, and the agency rejects accusations of racial profiling.
- A DHS filing in the case says REAL ID can be unreliable to confirm citizenship, while prior reporting by ProPublica documents at least 170 U.S. citizens detained in ICE operations, a record that could influence the court’s view of these tactics.