He was born in the United States. He has a Real ID, a Social Security number and a birth certificate. ICE detained him three times in less than one year.

Leonardo Garcia Venegas is a 26-year-old construction worker from Baldwin County, Alabama. In May 2025, ICE agents raided a private job site, tackled him to the ground, and held him in handcuffs for over an hour — ignoring his proof of citizenship. Two weeks later, different agents made the same assumption at a different construction site. Then in May 2026 — while he was the lead plaintiff in an active federal lawsuit challenging these exact tactics — agents pulled him from his truck in front of his own house and shackled him.

In this episode of The Raid, investigative journalist John Carlos Frey traces the full story: from the first raid to the federal courthouse to the morning they came back again.

https://theraidpodcast.org/

https://www.newsweek.com/how-ice-agents-detained-one-us-citizen-three-times-11928213

https://abcnews.com/US/lawyer-us-born-citizen-detained-ice-disputes-interfering/story?id=126162608

https://ij.org/case/alabama-construction-site-raids

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