Chief U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Beaverstock issued a temporary stay on September 21, 2026, blocking the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE from conducting warrantless raids at private construction sites in the Southern District of Alabama.
The ruling on September 21, 2026 was part of a lawsuit filed by Leo Garcia Venegas, a construction worker who was detained three times despite being a U.S. citizen.  The lawsuit was brought by the Institute For Justice on behalf of Venegas. The Institute for Justice (IJ) is a non-profit who brings lawsuits to try to change law through the Courts. They have a great youtube channel where they explain all the cases they bring. I highly recommend watching some of their videos. IJ posted the following on their website regarding the lawsuit:
A Federal Judge in Alabama ordered immigration officers to stop warrantless raids of construction sites, to stop detaining construction workers without a reason to suspect that a specific individual is undocumented, and to immediately release workers who present evidence of lawful presence like a REAL ID. The stay of these policies comes in a class-action lawsuit brought by Leo Garcia Venegas, who is represented by the Institute for JusticeÂ
This decision blocks the government from doing a few different things. Specifically, it prohibits three DHS policies:
- entering sites without a warrant,
- detaining workers without particularized suspicion, and
- continuing to hold individuals who present proof of citizenship.Â
As the Judge said in the decision, “Venegas, an employee working at his place of work, has a reasonable expectation of privacy. Here, 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.”