A federal judge has temporarily barred federal immigration officials from using three enforcement practices challenged by a Latino U.S. citizen who claims he was illegally detained at two construction sites in Alabama.
Leonardo Garcia Venegas, the Florida-born worker who resides in Alabama, alleges he was detained at two private home construction sites by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents even after they were told of his U.S. citizenship and saw a STAR ID, the state’s version of a REAL ID identification card. Officials initially dismissed his ID as “fake” and ignored “Do Not Trespass” signage and fencing in a location that indicated it was a private work zone, Venegas claims in his complaint.
At the other location, officers “walked past four non-Latino workers and went directly toward Venegas’ crew, all of whom were Latino,” according to court documents. At one location, Venegas was working alone inside a house in a housing development when an officer entered and ordered him outside where he was lined up with other arrested Latino workers from elsewhere in the housing development, according to the documents.
Venegas claims in the documents that there have been “sniffing” raids by ICE, a unit of the federal Department of Homeland Security, at construction sites throughout the region and that the agency authorizes armed raids based on general assumptions that certain groups of people, including Latinos, are likely to be illegal immigrants.
Venegas sued the agency. claiming that its “broad search and seizure power” at construction sites violates the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution, which protects citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures, and exceeds its authority to enforce warrantless entry; preventive detention; and continued detention.
In a Sept. 21 order, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Jeffrey Beaverstock in Mobile agreed, ruling that immigration agents likely violated Venegas’ Fourth Amendment rights. Beaverstock, appointed by President Donald Trump in 2018, issued a temporary stay on all three enforcement policies while the litigation continues.
“The government argued that construction sites should be treated as ‘open fields’ where officers can freely enter without a warrant. Even if the exterior portions of a partially constructed site could be considered an open field, the government offered nothing to support that conclusion with respect to the June encounter, which took place inside a nearly completed residential structure,” Beaverstock said. “The nature of the workplace does not open the floodgates to warrantless government intrusion, and there is no justification for entering a construction site that is not open to the public to conduct a warrantless seizure.”
The judge noted that Venegas’ case, brought by the Arlington, Va.-based public interest legal group the Institute for Justice, is likely to succeed on its merits.
Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment.
“This decision is a big blow [the department’s] Jared McClain, senior counsel at the Institute for Justice, in a statement to the media. “The government went to court and argued that they didn’t need warrants to enter private construction sites and round up all the workers, and that they can’t rely on government-issued IDs. By striking down these unconstitutional policies, the court has restored the rule of law. Construction workers like Leo can finally go back to work in peace.”
The judge’s decision, which is only viable in his jurisdiction, will likely be appealed,
Trent Cotney, a partner and leader of the construction team at the law firm Adams & Reese in Tampa and general counsel of the National Roofing Contractors Association, told ENR, “In any case, this is the first time I can remember where the three core tenants that came out of this case buttoned up perfectly in a construction-related decision, and it’s a very useful opinion,” with the broad ramifications of the National Construction Institute.
Impact of the decision
The decision has critical points for construction officials, Cotney said. Regardless of whether the work site is residential or not, it must have proper signage and fencing and be obvious that the public is not to enter, he said. Along with this, owners must train field workers’ managers to ensure they understand and enforce their rights.
“Be respectful, be civil, don’t obstruct, but know and assert your rights,” Cotney said. “You have a right to remain silent. You have a right to counsel, and ICE cannot enter what is considered private areas or private property without a court order, so you have to exercise that right.”
In addition, there must be reasonable suspicion to carry out a preventive or presumptive arrest, he said. “The fact that someone is a certain color or a certain race is not the presumption necessary to arrest someone. It has to be based on reasonable suspicion,” Cotney said.
The most important thing. Venegas is a US citizen and presented a REAL ID. “My understanding is this [the REAL ID] is DHS approved. This concludes the query. After that, you can’t arrest anyone else,” Beaverstock said.
“I’ve been waiting for the courts to finally say something about these tactics and procedures. It’s clearly an ICE tactic,” said George Carrillo, co-founder and CEO of the Hispanic Building Council. “I think the government’s position on this was very weak and it really shows what institutional racism looks like.”
Latinos make up a significant portion of the construction workforce, and the vast majority on the sites are there legally, he said.
By 2025, Latinos made up 35.2 percent of the construction industry workforce, or about 4.2 million workers in positions ranging from tradesmen to owners, engineers and architects, according to the council’s research. If those who physically work at the sites are taken into account, the proportion rises to about 52 percent, Carrillo said.
The ongoing ICE raid has given pause and created an atmosphere of fear, he said. “Being arrested for what? To be told I’m a liar when I give a valid ID. The fact that I have to prove that I’m an American citizen but see that my peers who may not be the same color as me” are not treated the same, he said.
Carrillo said some large contractors he has spoken with initially thought their sites would not be targeted by ICE because the government would only go after criminals. “But a lot of them have been attacked and they’re shocked and they don’t know what to do about it,” Carillo said. Some of them have contracts with federal and local governments, so they try not to burn any bridges by complaining, he added.
“There’s a lot of fear and intimidation, and it’s not just for Latinos. It’s also for employers,” he said. “I think more people are starting to understand it and be able to relate because they’re scared too.”
Cotney said he is getting calls from all over the country about ICE raids. The number of I-9 audits, used to verify employment eligibility in the United States, that his company defends has skyrocketed.
While the judge’s ruling doesn’t necessarily set precedent in every jurisdiction, Carillo said, it’s still important because “it’s a reasoned, reasoned text” that can be referred to.
