The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today expressed skepticism over ICE’s justification for detaining a US citizen with a REAL ID in Alabama.
The Department of Homeland Security has spoken out in defense of ICE’s Wednesday arrest of a Foley construction worker who is a U.S. citizen. DHS claimed the man was attempting to obstruct and prevent the lawful arrest of an illegal alien and “got in between agents and the subject they were attempting to arrest and refused to comply with numerous verbal commands.” A video posted to X by BreakThrough News shows the agents grabbing Leonardo García Venegas, 25, at the Foley construction site. The video does not show the altercation described by Homeland Security.
In a statement, CAIR Staff Attorney for Alabama Britton O’Shields said:
“Given that ICE has engaged in racial profiling and has wrongly detained American citizens in the past, we are deeply skeptical about its belated explanation for roughing up and detaining an American citizen during a worksite raid in Alabama. Even if its belated justification is true, ICE agents must stop their dangerous practice of suddenly approaching immigrants on the street or raiding their homes, workplaces and sensitive places while wearing plain clothes and masks. Carrying out unannounced immigration raids while wearing masks and plain clothes is bound to lead bystanders, including American citizens, to intervene to stop what may appear to be a kidnapping.”
END
CONTACT: CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, e-Mitchell@cair.com; CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-742-6448, rmccaw@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Manager Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, iallison@cair.com