The DHS Data Grab Is Putting US Citizens at Risk

As immigration raids have swept the country, it’s not just immigrants who have been kidnapped and detained. American citizens have also been caught up in the Trump administration’s draconian policies.

Leonardo Garcia Venegas, a US citizen living in Alabama, was forcibly detained in May by immigration authorities while at a construction worksite. When confronted, Garcia Venegas told authorities that he was a citizen and showed them his Alabama REAL ID, his lawyers claim. But that didn’t stop the authorities from tackling Garcia Venegas to the ground and putting him in handcuffs, they allege. In a court filing, Garcia Venegas says that he was kept handcuffed in the back of a car “in the hot Alabama sun” for over an hour.

Less than a month later, Garcia Venegas says, he was detained again at a worksite. While he wasn’t handcuffed this time, immigration authorities ignored the fact that Garcia Venegas told them he was a citizen and again presented them with a REAL ID, his lawyers claim.

Garcia Venegas is now suing the government. In his court declaration, Garcia Venegas says that an officer told him his ID was “fake.”

“I think that if you fit the demographic profile that they’re targeting and you are a citizen, [authorities] view the 30 minutes or three hours or three days that you spend in custody as just a necessary cost of the current enforcement system and the quotas and the bonuses and everything that goes along with that,” says Jared McClain, senior attorney at the Institute for Justice, which is representing Garcia Venegas.

“Allegations that DHS law enforcement officers engage in “racial profiling” are disgusting, reckless, and categorically FALSE. What makes someone a target for immigration enforcement is if they are illegally in the U.S.—NOT their skin color, race, or ethnicity. Under the fourth amendment of the U.S. Constitution, DHS law enforcement uses “reasonable suspicion” to make arrests. There are no “indiscriminate stops” being made. The Supreme Court recently vindicated us on this question. DHS enforces federal immigration law without fear, favor, or prejudice,” assistant secretary for public affairs at DHS Tricia McLaughlin tells WIRED.

Cases like this one are unfortunately not unique. According to reporting from ProPublica, at least 170 US citizens have been detained by immigration authorities through the first nine months of 2025. And this could all get much worse: The US government is rapidly combining data across federal agencies that could put a lot more people, including US citizens, in the crosshairs of its harsh immigration policies.

WIRED first reported in April that the Trump administration had been pooling data from across the government in its push to surveil and track immigrants, and it’s only continued from there.