Promises made — but not kept
Trump promised American citizens a country returned to greatness. He had the recipe. Tariffs paid by foreigners would spark domestic manufacturing. Tax cuts for the wealthy would unleash an entrepreneurial tide lifting even the smallest boat. The administration would usher in affordability after years of Democratic inflation. And ICE would cleanse the nation of criminal illegals. The citizens are still waiting.
And worse, some of them are being arrested by Trump’s federal agents who believe that skin color is a better guide to citizenship than documentary proof. Just ask Leonardo Garcia Venegas.
A citizen finds out he’s second-class
Garcia is an American citizen. He has a “REAL ID” to prove it. For white Americans, this would likely be enough. But Venegas is Hispanic. And his skin color renders his papers suspect. In an editorial for the Washington Post, his lawyer, Jared McClain, a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice, tells Leo’s story:
Garcia is Latino and works in construction. Twice since May, masked federal agents have gone onto private sites where he was working and detained him along with every other Latino worker — and only the Latino workers.
Both times, officers ignored clear signs that they were intruding on private property without a warrant. Both times, Garcia told the officers that he was an American citizen and showed them his Real ID. Both times, the officers detained him anyway because, they said, they couldn’t be sure his Real ID was real.
Garcia’s first detention by ICE was captured on a viral Twitter video.
The Dept of Homeland Security (DHS) offered its reflexive excuse for detaining a citizen. They blamed the victim. And said officers arrested Garcia for obstruction because he “physically got in between agents and the subject they were attempting to arrest and refused to comply with numerous verbal commands.”
However, a second video from Garcia’s POV shows that DHS is lying. He tells the agents he is getting his wallet. They grab Leo as he tells them, “I show my papers now. I’m a citizen, citizen. I show my papers now.” The agent is indifferent. He replies, as he pushes Garcia down, “Get on the fucking ground.”
In the WaPo piece, Garcia’s lawyer McClain explains:
He [Garcia] was about 25 feet away from where law enforcement was detaining someone when an officer tackled him without giving any verbal commands — let alone asking any questions.
Garcia was kept in handcuffs for an hour after showing evidence of citizenship. Once officers confirmed he was a citizen, they released him. He has never been charged with a crime and DHS has never attempted to explain his second arrest, which lasted roughly half an hour.
Predictably, DHS denies the video shows what it shows. In an Oct 1 press release the Department issued to “debunk false reporting,” DHS writes:
FALSE CLAIM: DHS roams the streets, courthouses, and workplaces demanding proof of citizenship from residents.
THE FACTS: DHS enforcement operations are highly targeted and are not resulting in the arrest of U.S. citizens. We do our due diligence. We know who we are targeting ahead of time. If and when we do encounter individuals subject to arrest, our law enforcement is trained to ask a series of well-determined questions to determine status and removability. ICE does not arrest or detain U.S. citizens.
1984
The gap between PR and reality is a feature in all large organizations. So some exaggeration (or, as advertisers call it, “puffery”) should be expected. But to say, “our law enforcement is trained to ask a series of well-determined questions to determine status and removability. ICE does not arrest or detain U.S. citizens,” is not an error in degree. It is a bald-faced lie.
It is a dishonesty so at odds with the facts that it merits mention along with Orwell’s doublethink formulation in 1984: War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.
To many, that book is a warning of humankind’s dystopian future if tyranny prevails. To the Trump administration, it is an instruction manual. In particular, the part where the higher-ups give the lower-downs their instructions. To wit, they demand that Party members must:
- Tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them.
- Forget any fact that has become inconvenient.
- Deny the existence of objective reality.
These are demands MAGA has well heeded.
Ignoring the law
McClain writes that ICE cannot enter private property, like a posted construction site, without a warrant. It seems they habitually do. He further claims that the Constitution’s 4th Amendment forbids detaining someone based on how they look. (Note: A September SCOTUS ruling temporarily allowing some racial profiling in Los Angeles appears to have dented that interpretation). And in all circumstances, the production of REAL ID should put a stop to questioning and detention.
DHS is familiar with REAL ID. They wrote the rules for it. McClain explains:
And even when officers have a more legitimate basis for a stop, someone showing a Real ID should almost always end it. Real IDs are presumptive proof of legal status because the federal government ensures that they are issued only to people who have proved their legal status to state authorities. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. recognized way back in 2012 that Real IDs would soon “suffice to establish lawful presence” in the country.
Adding: The Department of Homeland Security oversees the Real ID program.
And just in case a reader has not yet grasped the point, McClain expands:
When it comes to immigration enforcement, DHS is ignoring its own certification process and treating Real IDs as suspect. Officers continue to detain people after they present a Real ID — even when there is no reason to doubt the ID’s authenticity. In other words, DHS is placing more weight on its profile of how an undocumented worker looks than it places on the fact that someone has an ID issued exclusively to people who have proved their legal status.
Caveat and conclusion
McClain is Garcia’s lawyer. As such, he is not a disinterested writer. He is professionally obligated to put his client’s case in its best light. He is also an attorney for the civil rights organization, the Institute for Justice. They are an anti-government overreach advocacy group whose stock-in-trade is suing the government. However, they skew more libertarian than lefty — i.e., they cannot be smeared as a Democratic Party-aligned political organization playing politics for electoral advantage.
Regardless, facts decide lawsuits. DHS will have the opportunity to present its case. However, McClain’s evidence seems compelling. And Trump’s DOJ will have some explaining to do.
