Lawsuit filed against immigration authorities after U.S. citizen's
arrests in raids
[October 02, 2025]
By TIM SULLIVAN
An Alabama construction worker and U.S. citizen who says he was detained
twice by immigration agents within just a few weeks has filed a lawsuit
in federal court demanding an end to Trump administration workplace
raids targeting industries with large immigrant workforces.
The class-action lawsuit, filed Tuesday by concrete worker Leo Garcia
Venegas with the public interest law firm Institute for Justice, demands
an end to what the firm calls “unconstitutional and illegal immigration
enforcement tactics.”
Venegas, who was born in the U.S., lives and works in Baldwin County,
Alabama, a Gulf Coast area between the cities of Mobile and Pensacola,
Florida, that has seen immense population growth in the last 15 years,
and which offers plenty of construction work.
The lawsuit comes just weeks after the Supreme Court lifted a judge’s
restraining order that had barred immigration agents in Los Angeles from
stopping people solely based on their race, language, job or location.
The court has repeatedly allowed some of the Trump administrations
harshest immigration policies, while also leaving open that legal
outcomes could shift as cases play out.
The Department of Homeland Security dismissed the suit as “race-baiting
opportunism."
“DHS law enforcement uses ‘reasonable suspicion’ to make arrests,”
Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “What makes
someone a target for immigration enforcement is if they are illegally in
the U.S. — NOT their skin color, race, or ethnicity." McLaughlin did not
address why Venegas was detained twice even though he's a U.S. citizen.
The new lawsuit describes repeated raids on workplaces despite agents
having no warrants nor suspicion that specific workers were in the U.S.
illegally, and a string of U.S. citizens — many with Latino-sounding
names — who were detained.

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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents make an arrest
during an early morning operation in Park Ridge, Ill., Sept. 19,
2025. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley, File)

The Department of Homeland Security “authorizes these armed raids
based on the general assumption that certain groups of people in the
industry, including Latinos, are likely illegal immigrants,” the
suit argues.
In a May raid that swept up Venegas, video shot by a coworker shows
him being forced to the ground by immigration agents as he
repeatedly insisted he was a U.S. citizen. The lawsuit says the
agents targeted workers at the building site who looked Latino,
while leaving alone the other workers. Venegas was released after
more than an hour, according to the law firm.
Venegas was detained again at another construction site less than a
month later.
“It feels like there is nothing I can do to stop immigration agents
from arresting me whenever they want,” Leo said in a statement
released by the law firm. “I just want to work in peace. The
Constitution protects my ability to do that.”
Venegas, who specializes in laying concrete foundations, says he was
detained both times despite showing his Alabama-issued REAL ID
driver’s license — a higher-security identity card available only to
U.S. citizens and legal residents.
Immigration agents told him the ID card was fake, before eventually
releasing him. He was released after about 20-30 minutes.
“Immigration officers are not above the law,” Institute for Justice
attorney Jaba Tsitsuashvili said in a statement. “Leo is a
hardworking American citizen standing up for everyone’s right to
work without being detained merely for the way they look or the job
that they do.”
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