A federal judge in Alabama on Monday temporarily barred immigration officers from entering construction sites without a warrant and detaining workers without suspicion that they live in the country illegally.
The order from U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Beaverstock, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, sides with Leo Garcia Venegas, a U.S. citizen and construction worker whom immigration agents have detained three times in Alabama since the beginning of Trump’s second term.
Immigration agents detained Venegas while on the job at private construction sites 20 miles apart, once on May 21, 2025, and again on June 12, 2025, even though he showed his Alabama REAL ID, according to court documents filed in the lawsuit. Agents detained Venegas a third time in his driveway on May 2.
Beaverstock’s order concludes that the government’s actions against Venegas likely violated the Constitution. While the case moves forward, Beaverstock is barring agents from entering construction sites without warrants or consent; from detaining workers without suspicion that each of them resides in the U.S. illegally; and from continuing the detention of those who present documents showing their lawful status.
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The judge pointed out that the government provided “little in the way of response” to an argument from Venegas’ attorneys that an Alabama REAL ID should not be ignored as preemptive proof of citizenship.
“The record also reflects that Venegas was not promptly released following the production of his REAL ID to officers,” Beaverstock wrote. “Instead, the officers disregarded the veracity of his documentation and continued to detain him. A policy that permits such action is likely to run afoul of the Fourth Amendment.”
The judge also was not convinced by Justice Department arguments that the agents didn’t need a warrant to enter a construction site.
“The nature of the worksite does not open the floodgates to warrantless government intrusion and there exists no justification to enter a construction site that is not open to the public to conduct warrantless seizure,” Beaverstock wrote.
Venegas, who sued the Department of Homeland Security nearly a year ago, says he’s traumatized after the repeated detentions.
“For the first time in a long time, I will be able to go to work without worrying that I will be arrested for no reason,” he said in a statement. “Americans cannot be stopped and held by law enforcement when they are doing nothing wrong.”
DHS denied to the court that such policies existed. Beaverstock admonished the government for not putting forward arguments to explain why Venegas’ detentions didn’t violate the law.
“The Government’s position that the safety of the officers was a factor is unsupported by the record especially given that there were multiple individuals on the jobsite who did not appear to be Hispanic, and none of those individuals were detained in the name of safety,” he wrote. “Finally, the Government offers no factual support whatsoever as to why officers reasonably believed Venegas ‘may be an alien.’”
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