The DHS data seizure puts American citizens at risk

As well as immigration raids It swept the country, it’s not just immigrants Who were to kidnap And detained. American citizens have also fallen into the trap of the Trump administration’s strict measures Policies.

In May, Leonardo García Venegas, a US citizen living in Alabama, was forcibly detained Immigration authorities While you are on a construction job site. When confronted, Garcia-Venegas told authorities he was a citizen and showed them his Alabama Real identityas his lawyers claim. But that didn’t stop authorities from pinning Garcia-Venegas to the ground and handcuffing him, they claim. In a lawsuit, Garcia-Venegas says he remained handcuffed in the back of the car “under the hot Alabama sun” for more than an hour.

Less than a month later, Garcia-Venegas says, he was arrested again at the work site. Although he was not handcuffed this time, immigration authorities ignored the fact that Garcia-Venegas told them he was a citizen and again provided them with a Real ID, his lawyers allege.

Garcia-Venegas is now suing the government. Garcia-Venegas says in his court statement that an officer told him his ID was “fake.”

“I think if you fit the demographic profile that they’re targeting and you’re a citizen, (authorities) look at 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 rewards and everything that goes along with that,” says Jared McLean, senior staff attorney at the Institute for Justice, which represents Garcia-Venegas.

“Allegations that DHS law enforcement officials engage in ‘racial profiling’ are disgusting, reckless, and categorically false. What makes someone a target of immigration enforcement is if they are illegally in the United States — not their skin color, race, or ethnicity. Under the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, DHS law enforcement officials use ‘reasonable suspicion’ to make arrests. There are no ‘random stops’. The Supreme Court recently acquitted us in this matter.” “DHS enforces federal immigration law without fear, favor, or bias,” DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin tells WIRED.

Cases like this are unfortunately not unique. according to Reporting from ProPublicaIn 2025, immigration authorities arrested at least 170 U.S. citizens during the first nine months of 2025. And it could all get much worse: The U.S. government is rapidly consolidating data across federal agencies that could put far more people, including U.S. citizens, in the crosshairs of harsh immigration policies.

WIRED first reported in April The Trump administration was collecting data from across the government in its campaign to monitor and track immigrants, and it continued from there.