Levka"Authorities wrestled a US-born citizen to the ground, cuffed him and dismissed his so-called Real ID as 'fake' during an arrest operation targeting undocumented people on Wednesday under the direction of the Trump administration, according to a viral video and reporting by Telemundo.
Leonardo Garcia Venegas, 25, was at his construction job in Foley, Alabama, when officials arrived to arrest workers there. Garcia Venegas – who was born in Florida to Mexican parents – began filming the arrests with his mobile phone before officials reportedly knocked the device out of his hand and tried to arrest him as well.
Video of the arrest shows three officials wrestling him to the ground, while he yells: 'I’m a citizen!'
(. . . )
His cousin, also a US citizen, told Telemundo they both went through the process of acquiring the Real ID, undergoing “the protocols the administration is asking for”.
'I feel sad because, even though we were born here, that doesn’t matter any more,' the cousin said. She added: 'To have our skin color has, apparently, become a crime. And it has become a crime deserving of this type of treatment – as if we were real criminals.'
In a statement to NBC News, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) accused Garcia Venegas of having 'interfered' with the arrest during the operation.
'Anyone who actively obstructs law enforcement in the performance of their sworn duties, including US citizens, will of course face consequences which include arrest,' the DHS’s statement to NBC said."
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/24/us-citizen-detained-ice-real-id
