COASTAL ALABAMA — Immigration agents pulled U.S. citizen Leonardo Garcia Venegas from his car in coastal Alabama in early May and shackled him, marking the third time he had been detained by federal immigration officers. His lawyers subsequently updated his pending federal lawsuit against the Trump administration with details of the latest stop.

On May 2, agents followed Garcia Venegas to his home, did not believe his claims of U.S. citizenship and refused to accept his Alabama REAL ID. He was released after about 15 minutes. He said in a court filing that the officers told him he risked being stopped again until he registered the license plates of his vehicle in his own name.

"Honestly, it feels terrible," Garcia Venegas said. "I drive to work every morning and I know, at any moment, they could pull me over again."

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said Garcia Venegas was not detained during the May stop and was released after his identity was established. DHS said it is not arresting U.S. citizens by mistake and that its enforcement operations are highly targeted. It is not clear what intelligence agents used in his repeated detentions.

At a border security conference in Phoenix, Matthew Elliston said, "Since the start of this administration, we have not had any arrests of U.S. citizens for false identification, where we thought they were an illegal alien but they were actually a U.S. citizen." Rodney Scott said, "I'm not going to do anything to not arrest U.S. citizens. Because we arrest criminals, period."

Garcia Venegas, who was born in Florida and graduated high school in the same Alabama county where he has been detained, was first stopped about a year ago during a raid on his coastal Alabama construction site. He was filming his brother's arrest when agents tackled him and ignored his pleas that he was a U.S. citizen. A few weeks later, an officer entered a home he was building and refused to accept his REAL ID. Videos of both incidents went viral, and he later appeared before Congress to discuss the detentions.

In the federal lawsuit filed last fall, Garcia Venegas demanded that immigration agents stop conducting "unconstitutional" raids in his area. Government lawyers said in court that immigration sweeps are based on reasonable suspicion, probable cause, and the Constitution, and argued that the case had no merit. He filed a separate claim for damages with the government last fall and received a denial from ICE in mid-April without explanation. His third detention occurred roughly two weeks later.

Some U.S. citizens accused of assaulting officers, including Garcia Venegas, were not charged with assault, and in some cases video footage contradicted DHS claims that its agents were attacked. Days after his latest detention, immigration agents tackled an American teenager in the Bronx and, upon realizing he was a U.S. citizen, left him bloody and bruised in an unfamiliar neighborhood. "I just want to live in peace," he said.