Civil Liberties

In Lawsuit Over Construction Raids, DHS Official Testifies ICE Agents Can't Trust REAL IDs

A Homeland Security official's testimony that ICE agents couldn't rely on REAL IDs as proof of citizenship led a federal judge to reply, "Help me understand how that makes sense."

C.J. Ciaramella | 6.8.2026 11:41 AM

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(Anthony Behar/Sipa USA/Newscom)

At a federal court hearing in Mobile, Alabama, on May 28, government officials continued to argue that REAL IDs aren't reliable proof of citizenship and that federal immigration officers don't need a warrant to enter private construction sites.

Philip Lavoie, the acting assistant special agent in charge of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) field office in Mobile, Alabama, testified in a civil rights lawsuit that REAL IDs "can be unreliable to confirm U.S. citizenship," according to a transcript of the hearing.

The comments raised the eyebrows of Chief U.S. District Judge Anthony Beaverstock. If REAL ID is good enough for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), he asked, why would immigration enforcers not accept it? "Help me understand how that makes sense," he said.

Whether immigration agents can ignore government-issued IDs to detain suspected illegal immigrants is one of the central questions in a lawsuit filed last October by Leo Garcia Venegas, an Alabama construction worker and U.S. citizen. The May 28 hearing concerned a motion for a preliminary injunction filed by Venegas and the Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm, asking Beaverstock to block the government from continuing to preemptively detain him.

Immigration officers have detained and handcuffed Venegas three times since last May, despite his being a U.S. citizen. The first two arrests occurred during raids on private construction sites, where Venegas' lawsuit alleges officers detained workers based solely on their apparent ethnicity.

Agents detained Venegas for a third time, shackling him by the legs and arms, during a traffic stop this March—months after he had initiated litigation claiming the government was violating his Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. In all instances, agents ignored Venegas' REAL ID, issued by the state of Alabama and identifying him as........

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