US Citizen Has REAL ID, Gets Detained by ICE Anyway

Leonardo Garcia Venegas was working at his construction job at a site in Foley, Alabama, last week when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents showed up to carry out a raid. Venegas, 25, says he was using his cellphone to record the arrests when agents knocked the device out of his hand and started wrestling him to the ground, the Guardian reports. In video of the incident, he can be heard yelling, "I'm a citizen!" His cousin tells NBC News agents then removed his REAL ID from his wallet, declared it to be fake, and violently handcuffed him. He was released hours later, AL.com reports. Garcia Venegas, who was born in Florida, says he had to give agents his social security number in order to prove his citizenship status.

"Apparently a REAL ID is not valid anymore. He has a REAL ID," his cousin says. "We all made sure we have the REAL ID and went through the protocols the administration is asking for." The Department of Homeland Security responded in a statement and accused Garcia Venegas of interfering with other arrests: "Anyone who actively obstructs law enforcement in the performance of their sworn duties, including US citizens, will of course face consequences which include arrest." Garcia Venegas denies doing anything other than filming. Four people at the job site, including Garcia Venegas' brother, who is undocumented, were arrested in the raid. (More mass deportations stories.)