Immigration agents have intensified raids on construction sites across the country as the Trump administration pursues mass deportations. The raids often involve federal agents entering worksites without warrants, chasing workers, and detaining them (including U.S. citizens) for identity and immigration status checks. Now, the federal government is defending some of those tactics in court and asking a judge to throw out a lawsuit challenging them. In one such defense, the Trump administration basically argued that Fourth Amendment rights do not apply here: An attorney representing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) argued that federal agents don't need warrants to enter construction sites, in a motion filed on January 29 in the Southern District of Alabama.
The case stems from two separate encounters between Leo Garcia Venegas—a U.S. citizen and construction worker—and immigration agents at Alabama construction sites in May and June 2025. Both times, Venegas was detained (once violently) while at work on private property. "I got arrested twice for being a Latino working in construction," Venegas said in a video about his case produced by the Institute for Justice, a public-interest law firm that is representing him. DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin told Reason in October that "allegations that DHS law enforcement officers engage in 'racial profiling' are disgusting, reckless, and categorically FALSE."
