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Alabama worker says ICE dragged him from job despite being US citizen: ‘Color of our skin has become a crime’
He said when he tried to record the incident, the agents knocked his phone out of his hand.
www.al.com
A construction worker in south Alabama says he was forcibly detained Wednesday by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who claimed his proof of U.S. citizenship was fake.
A video posted to X by BreakThrough News shows the agents grabbing Leonardo García Venegas, 25, at the Foley construction site he works.
It is not clear where the construction is located and efforts to find contact information for Venegas were not successful.
“He’s not even doing nothing wrong!” says the man recording.
“What the f***. He’s a citizen, bro. He’s a f***ing citizen!”
The video also shows an agent holding down another worker.
Venegas told Telemundo that when he returned to the construction site after being released hours later, ICE had detained several other workers.
This included his 34-year-old brother, who is allegedly in the country illegally, according to The Latin Times.
But Venegas says he was born in Florida.
He told Telemundo when he tried to record the incident, the agents knocked his phone out of his hand.
When he told the agents to review his citizenship documents, Venegas says they didn’t believe him.
“They took out my wallet, took out my ID,” he said in an interview with the outlet.
“And they told me it was fake. Said it wasn’t valid and that it was fake. My ID. They handcuffed me and they handcuffed me really tight.”
Venegas would not be the first citizen mistakenly deported as ICE officers work to fulfill President Donald Trump’s promise to enact the biggest deportation effort in American history.
In April, ICE refused to release a Georgia man detained during a traffic stop even after his birth certificate was presented to a judge, The Latin Times reports.
“It’s sad that having the color of our skin has become a crime, a deserved crime to treat us as if we were true criminals,” Venegas’ cousin told Telemundo this week.
There is no public data on the number of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests in the state since Trump took office, but Baldwin County Sheriff Anthony Lowery has been outspoken in his interest in tackling illegal immigration and assisting ICE’s efforts.
His office declined a previous request for comment from AL.com.
Efforts to reach ICE representatives for comment were not immediately successful.
