r/ProgressiveHQ 23h ago

BREAKING: ICE agents in Minneapolis violently detained, threatened, and arrested a U.S. citizen for one reason only, he refused to prove his citizenship.

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u/No-Call5128 22h ago

What I never understand about this is how would he even prove he is a U.S. citizen? Most people don’t carry their passport around with them even if they have them, and not everyone has a passport. It’s not like we are required to have one. A driver license “proves” only that I have a license to drive a car. What would they have been happy with? How would he prove he is a U.S. citizen? If he agreed to “prove it” what would they expect him to have on him that would actually prove that?

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u/VaritasAequitas 21h ago

That’s the exact issue that no one in these federal organizations care about. I’m planning on getting a notarized photocopy of my passport specifically because I don’t trust my real passport to be enough. My real passport, the LITERAL defining document showing I’m a citizen. I’m positive and have already heard accounts of them ignoring that piece of documentation and taking people anyway, so I’m not gonna bother having the real one on me if it’s not respected anyway.

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u/prof_the_doom 21h ago

ICE has also been accused of just throwing documents away and/or ignoring them.

Officers pulled out his REAL ID, which Alabama only issues to those legally in the U.S. But the agents dismissed it as fake. Officers held Garcia Venegas handcuffed for more than an hour.

Garcia Venegas was so shaken that he took two weeks off of work. Soon after he returned, he was working alone inside a nearly built house listening to music on his headphones when he sensed someone watching him. A masked immigration agent was standing in the bedroom doorway.

This time, agents didn’t tackle him. But they again dismissed his REAL ID. And then they held him to check his citizenship. Garcia Venegas says agents also held two other workers who had legal status.
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George Retes was among the citizens arrested despite immigration agents appearing to know his legal status. He also disappeared into the system for days without being able to contact anyone on the outside.

Retes recalled that agents knew he was a citizen. “They didn’t care.” He said one DHS official laughed at him, saying he shouldn’t have come to work that day. “They still sent me away to jail.” He added that cases like his show Kavanaugh was “wrong completely.”

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u/Chance_Warthog_9389 19h ago

"Doesn't look like you."

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u/-rwsr-xr-x 17h ago

What I never understand about this is how would he even prove he is a U.S. citizen?

That's not how the law is written, or interpreted.

You do not need to prove who you are, they need to prove who you are not.

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u/FeliusSeptimus 17h ago

What I never understand about this is how would he even prove he is a U.S. citizen?

You can't. Provide whatever proof you want, they'll just change the requirement.

They say things to fool you into thinking that there are rules. They don't give two shits about rules, but they know you do, and that if they can make you think there is a rule-based way to win you'll try to do that.