HOUSTON
\nLeo Garcia Venegas was working at a construction site in Alabama when two immigration agents ran up to him and wrestled him to the ground. \u201cI\u2019m a citizen. I\u2019m a citizen,\u201d he told them.
\nThey didn\u2019t believe it. He was handcuffed and detained for an hour before being released \u2014 with no apology, according to his lawyers.
\n\u201cThe officers have no warrant, they didn\u2019t know who Leo was and haven\u2019t seen him breaking any laws,\u201d said Janae Wilkerson of the public-interest Institute for Justice (IJ), which partnered with Garcia Venegas in filing a class action lawsuit in Alabama last week.
\n\u201cWhen the officers checked Leo\u2019s Alabama-issued Real ID, they called it fake.\u201d
\nThe incident occurred in May, in an area of Alabama where there is hot demand for new homes. In June, it happened again.\u201dI was in one of the houses with headphones on.
\nI felt someone behind me. It was an immigration agent who came through the garage,\u201d Garcia Venegas said in a video produced by IJ. \u201cI told him that I was a citizen. They told me I had to follow them to the car to verify whether I was a citizen or no,\u201d he said.
\nGarcia Venega\u2019s lawyers say the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s current policies allow agents to arrest anyone they believe may be undocumented, until they prove otherwise.
\nThat violates the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution, which protects citizens against \u201cunreasonable searches and seizures\u201d and warrantless arrests.
\n\u201cThey arrested me twice for being Latino, for working in construction,\u201d said Garcia Venegas, a 25-year-old man born in Florida to Mexican parents. \u201cI live in fear every day that when I get to work it will happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
HOUSTON Leo Garcia Venegas was working at a construction site in Alabama when two immigration agents ran up to him and wrestled him to the ground. \u201cI\u2019m a citizen. I\u2019m a citizen,\u201d he told them. They didn\u2019t believe it. He was handcuffed and detained for an hour before being released \u2014 with no apology, according […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506952,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-506941","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n