Washington, DC — New reporting from Mother Jones that an Alabama construction worker and U.S. citizen, Leonardo Garcia Venegas, has now been detained by ICE three separate times despite repeatedly proving his citizenship underscores a growing and dangerous reality under the Trump administration: no one is off limits.
His case is the latest in a growing pattern of U.S. citizens being wrongfully targeted, detained, assaulted, and even killed as the administration escalates its mass deportation agenda with increasingly little regard for constitutional protections or civil liberties.
According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:
“The Trump administration has created an immigration enforcement machine so reckless and unaccountable that even U.S. citizens are getting caught in its grip.
Leonardo Garcia Venegas has been detained by ICE three separate times despite repeatedly proving his citizenship. A U.S.-born citizen, he was followed home, tackled, shackled, and interrogated by armed and masked immigration agents. He has been forced time and again to prove that he belongs in his own country. This kind of abuse becomes inevitable when an administration prioritizes indiscriminate mass deportation over constitutional rights and accountability. It is made worse by the reckless “Kavanaugh Stops” approved by our own Supreme Court.
And he is far from alone. We’ve seen U.S. citizens dragged from their homes, pregnant Americans violently detained, children questioned about their citizenship, and Americans racially profiled while simply going about their daily lives.
This is what happens when an administration empowers agents to target first and ask questions later. And now, instead of accountability, congressional Republicans want to pour even more money into the chaos and cruelty driving these abuses. Congress should not give Trump, Stephen Miller and ICE another dime to continue terrorizing citizens and our communities.”
America’s Voice has previously documented numerous cases involving U.S. citizens wrongfully targeted, detained, or harmed by immigration enforcement actions, including:
- A naturalized U.S. citizen in Minnesota dragged from his home into freezing temperatures in his underwear after ICE agents broke down his door
- Pregnant U.S. citizen Cary López Alvarado violently detained by immigration agents days before giving birth
- Kenny Laynez Ambrocio, a U.S.-born Florida high school senior, detained during a traffic stop while officers allegedly told him “you have no rights”
- U.S. citizen and Army veteran William Vermie detained for hours after observing an ICE arrest from a public sidewalk in Minneapolis
- A 12-year-old U.S. citizen in Alaska reportedly being forced to provide DNA evidence to prove his citizenship
- A U.S.-born Chinese American man approached by ICE agents at his home before dawn without explanation
- Jose Hermosillo, a U.S. citizen with learning disabilities, detained for 10 days after asking Border Patrol for help following a medical emergency
- U.S. military veteran George Retes violently detained during a California workplace raid despite repeatedly identifying himself as an American citizen
- Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez detained during a Florida traffic stop despite showing both his Social Security card and driver’s license
