Earning an honest living is fundamental to being an American. What’s deeply un-American is the government using masked agents to harass hard-working Americans at work. Leonardo Garcia Venegas knows this all too well.
Leo is an American citizen born to Mexican national parents. Like so many others in his south Alabama community, he works in construction. Baldwin County, where he lives, has grown quickly in recent years. For Leo, that growth presents an exciting opportunity: A chance to work hard to help meet the demand for new housing. But the federal government sees a different opportunity in the housing boom: a target for its “mass deportation” campaign.
In early 2025, federal agents—often masked and always armed—began raiding private construction sites in Alabama. The raids follow a common pattern: Agents enter private properties—even areas that are posted, fenced, or enclosed—without warrants. Then, they seize all workers who appear Latino—even citizens who have done nothing wrong. This all happened to Leo, not once, but twice.
In May, masked agents ran past a “no trespassing” sign onto a property where Leo was working to detain everybody who appeared Latino (ignoring others). Leo told them he was a citizen, yet they still tackled and handcuffed him. Even after seeing his REAL ID—which Alabama only issues to lawful residents—they kept Leo tightly handcuffed for an hour.
Then, in June, it happened again. Agents walked inside a house where Leo was working, surrounded him, and ordered him to follow them. Again, Leo produced his REAL ID. Again, the agents refused to accept it. They marched him out of the development and detained him alongside other workers they had grabbed—only releasing him (and other lawful residents) 20 minutes later after confirming his citizenship.
All Leo ever did was show up at work. And for that, he was assaulted and detained. Enough is enough. These federal raids violate the Fourth Amendment and exceed immigration officers’ legal powers. So, Leo has partnered with the Institute for Justice to file a federal class-action lawsuit to put a stop to them. He’s also seeking damages for the violations he suffered. Because if Americans must follow the law, our government must be held accountable when it violates the Constitution.
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Leo is a hardworking American citizen and construction worker.
Leo was born in 1999 in Lehigh Acres, Florida, to Mexican national parents. That makes him an American citizen.[1] When Leo was 14 years old, his family moved to Robertsdale, Alabama, where he attended high school and has lived ever since. After finishing high school in 2018, Leo started working as a construction worker. He began as a bricklayer, then took up masonry, and now lays concrete for new homes.
At least economically, it’s an exciting time to work construction in Alabama. Baldwin County, where Leo lives and takes all of his jobs, is the sixth-fastest growing metro area in the country.[2] New people requires new housing, which requires construction. So Leo has no trouble getting work building homes in the many new private developments that are popping up all over the area—developments owned by major builders like D.R. Horton, Lennar, and DSLD.
The federal government is raiding Alabama construction sites.
The federal government sees all the new construction in Alabama differently. The new administration has promised to conduct “mass deportations” of illegal immigrants.[3] To that end, senior officials have urged immigration agents to “do what you need to do” to increase the number of arrests to meet ever-increasing quotas.[4] That means taking steps to “push the envelope” and turn the “creativity knob up to 11,” because “[i]f it involves handcuffs on wrists, it’s probably worth pursuing.”[5]
All of this top-down pressure has prompted the regional immigration unit, a coalition of federal agencies called the Gulf of America Homeland Security Task Force and led by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), to target Alabama construction sites with a series of aggressive raids. As one news station reported in June, “federal agencies have raided multiple construction sites across the [Mobile] bay” and raids had been happening “for months.”[6] A federal agent leading the raids confirmed they are targeting Baldwin County because that’s where construction workers “could find employment and where they could settle down.”[7]
The raids follow a common pattern. Federal agents—often masked and always armed—burst into construction sites without warrants, ignoring “no trespassing” signs, jumping fences, and entering enclosed structures. Then, they conduct dragnet seizures of Latino workers—even citizens who have done nothing wrong. This all happened to Leo twice.
Leo was twice detained just for working on a construction site.
On May 21, Leo went to lay the foundation for new homes in a residential subdivision in Baldwin County. The site was posted with a “no trespassing” sign. As he walked up, Leo saw federal agents jumping a fence and running toward his fellow Latino workers, one of whom was his (undocumented) brother. The agents started detaining everybody who looked Latino (ignoring others).
Leo, fearing for his brother, started slowly approaching and recording a video with his phone. While Leo was still a full house-length away (about 30 feet), one of the agents stepped in his path and Leo started backing away. The agent grabbed him by the arm, at which point Leo shouted, “Don’t touch me! I’m a citizen!” Without asking any questions, the agent forced Leo’s arm behind his back and tackled him to the ground. Leo shouted, “Help!” and said, “I’ll show you my papers now!”
Several non-Latino workers—whom the agents never approached—looked on in horror at the baseless assault of an American citizen, yelling things like: “That’s illegal!” “You’re not supposed to be doing that!” “He’s a citizen!” “He’s not even doing nothing wrong.” All the while, Leo continued to shout, “I’m a citizen! Stop! I’ll show you my papers now!”
Two more agents rushed to Leo and helped the first agent pin him to the ground. Leo continued to shout, “I’m a citizen! I’m a citizen! I’m a citizen!” One of the agents reached into Leo’s pocket and took out his driver’s license—a REAL ID that, as a matter of both state and federal law, supplies presumptive evidence of citizenship or lawful presence.[8] The agents didn’t care. They told Leo his ID was fake, handcuffed him, and led him to their unmarked car.
Leo continued to tell the agents that he was a citizen and pleaded with them to check his Social Security number. One of the agents finally relented, made a phone call, and, after about 10 minutes, confirmed Leo’s citizenship and released him. For a while, Leo was scared to go back to work. And after he eventually worked up the courage to do so, he was wrongfully detained again.
On June 12, Leo was working inside a partially built home in another new development in Baldwin County. The home had walls, a roof, and some doors—but no garage door. Leo was working alone in a bedroom when a federal agent walked through the garage and entered the room. The agent ordered Leo to exit the house. Leo responded that he was a citizen. Another agent, he noticed, was standing guard outside the window to the room.
Leo, feeling cornered and threatened, complied with the first agent’s order and exited the house. Once outside, Leo reiterated that he was a citizen and took out his REAL ID. Yet again, however, the agents questioned its authenticity and ordered him to come to their vehicles so they could verify his status. The armed agents marched Leo to the edge of the development into a lineup with other Latino construction workers they had detained—at least two of whom, like Leo, had legal status. Eventually, about 20 minutes after Leo was first cornered in the house, the agents finally released him.
These raids violate the Fourth Amendment and federal statutes.
Leo was never charged with a crime after either baseless detention. That’s because Leo did nothing wrong. All he ever did was show up to work at a construction site. And for that, he was targeted. But Leo and the countless other construction workers in Alabama deserve better. Indeed, these raids violate the Fourth Amendment and exceed immigration agents’ legal authority.
Immigration agents cannot search the private areas of construction sites—areas that are posted with “no trespassing” signs, marked by fences, or enclosed with structures—without a warrant.[9] Nor can agents detain or arrest workers on these sites without a warrant or an objective basis to suspect that they have committed a crime.[10] Leo experienced all of these violations firsthand—twice!—just for going to work at a construction site.
These unlawful raids must end and Leo deserves accountability.
Leo is partnering with the Institute for Justice (IJ) to put a stop to these unlawful raids and to hold the government accountable for the violations he suffered. He is asking for two basic things: First, he seeks an immediate end to the federal government’s unlawful construction site raids and suspicionless seizures of workers on those sites. Second, Leo seeks damages for the constitutional violations and harms he suffered during the raids.
DHS has authorized officers to target these construction sites without any prior investigation or reason to believe that the construction firms staffing a particular site or their employees are violating immigration laws. Once on a site, DHS policy allows them to seize any workers they think looks undocumented, based on a generalized demographic profile. The workers must then prove their legal status to go free. But that can take time and be extremely difficult since, under the enforcement policy, DHS does not recognize REAL IDs as proof of legal status—even though DHS is the very agency responsible for certifying that REAL IDs are issued only to people with legal status.
Leo’s core legal claims are that the federal government’s warrantless construction site raids and suspicionless seizures of people working on those sites violate the Fourth Amendment and exceed immigration agents’ statutory powers.
The parties and attorneys.
The plaintiff is Leo Garcia Venegas. He has filed this lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama.
Leo is represented by IJ Attorneys Jared McClain and Jaba Tsitsuashvili, and IJ Senior Attorney Joshua Windham.
About the Institute for Justice—advancing two strategic projects.
The Institute for Justice (IJ), founded in 1991, is a national public-interest law firm that defends constitutional rights across the country. This case falls at the intersection of two major IJ projects. IJ’s Project on the Fourth Amendment seeks to bolster all Americans’ right to be secure from unreasonable searches and seizures. IJ’s Project on Immunity and Accountability seeks to expand Americans’ ability to obtain remedies in court when government officials violate their constitutional rights. IJ is currently representing Virginians fighting warrantless surveillance in Norfolk, property owners in Alabama trying to stop trespassing game wardens, and people in California and Arizona falsely arrested and held by federal officers.
[1] United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649, 693 (1898) (“The fourteenth amendment affirms the ancient and fundamental rule of citizenship by birth within the territory”).
[2] U.S. Census Bureau, Growth in Metro Areas Outpaced Nation (Mar. 13, 2025) https://perma.cc/P6CU-PXK3 (ranking the metro area of “Daphne-Fairhope-Foley, AL,” which is within Baldwin County, sixth on a list of “Top 10 U.S. Metro Areas by Percent Growth: July 1, 2023, to July 1, 2024”).
[3] DHS, Statement from a DHS Spokesperson on Directive Expanding Immigration Law Enforcement to Some Department of Justice Officials (Jan 23, 2025), https://perma.cc/HE6R-4KXY.
[4] Elizabeth Findell et al., The White House Marching Orders That Sparked the L.A. Migrant Crackdown, Wall St. J. (June 9, 2025), https://www.wsj.com/us-news/protests-los-angeles-immigrants-trump-f5089877.
[5] José Olivares, US immigration officers ordered to arrest more people even without warrants, The Guardian (June 4, 2025), https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/04/immigration-officials-increased-detentions-collateral-arrests.
[6] Fox10 News, Homeland Security investigator talks about Baldwin County raids (June 12, 2025), https://www.fox10tv.com/video/2025/06/12/homeland-security-investigator-talks-about-baldwin-county-raids/.
[7] Id.
[8] Ala. Code §§ 31-13-3(11), 31-13-29(c)(1), (g); 6 C.F.R. § 37.3.
[9] See Marshall v. Barlow’s, Inc., 436 U.S. 307, 315 (1978) (holding “federal agents [may not] enter a place of business from which the public is restricted and . . . conduct their own warrantless search”); 8 C.F.R. § 287.8(f)(2) (confirming immigration officers must follow this search restriction).
[10] See United States v. Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S. 873, 884 (1975) (holding “officers on roving [immigration] patrol” may stop people suspected of being “illegally in the country” “only if they are aware of specific articulable facts, together with rational inferences from those facts” that suggest the person lacks lawful status); Beck v. Ohio, 379 U.S. 89, 91 (1964) (holding an arrest is valid only if “officers had probable cause to make it”); 8 C.F.R. §§ 287.8(b)(2), (c)(2) (confirming immigration officers must follow these stop and arrest restrictions).
