Judge Halts 3 ICE Practices While Civil Lawsuit Moves Forward
By J. Thomas Wade
Blue RAM Media/Gulf Coast News
September 22, 2026
MOBILE, Ala. ICE and other federal law enforcement agencies have repeatedly entered area construction sites to identify and apprehend illegal immigrants.
But now, a federal judge in Mobile on Monday has temporarily halted three specific practices of ICE enforcement policies that are being challenged by a Baldwin County construction worker who says federal agents repeatedly detained him despite being a U.S. citizen.
In his opinion, Chief U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Beaverstock ruled Monday that Leonardo Garcia Venegas is likely to succeed on his claims that the alleged policies violate the Fourth Amendment and federal immigration regulations.
This temporary order gives the case time to work its way through the fderal court system.
The judge stopped short of issuing the broader preliminary injunction Venegas requested. Instead, Beaverstock temporarily stayed the three challenged policies while the lawsuit moves forward.
Those alleged policies allowed immigration officers to enter private construction sites without a warrant or consent, detain workers without individualized suspicion that they are in the country illegally, and continue holding workers even after they show evidence of citizenship or lawful status.
The judge stated that Department of Homeland Security agents likely violated the Fourth Amendment when they tackled a U.S. citizen, called his REAL ID fake and held him anyway.
Chief U.S. District Judge Jeffrey U. Beaverstock stayed what Garcia Venegas calls a warrantless entry policy, a preemptive detention policy and a continued detention policy for time being.
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