Why jobsite access control matters more than ever

By The Coffee Shops®. 

Takeaways from the Alabama immigration case Venegas v. Homan that contractors should pay attention to. 

Last month, an Alabama federal court made a ruling in the case of Venegas v. Homan. This case arose from two encounters involving Leonardo Garcia Venegas, a U.S. citizen who builds homes in Baldwin County, Alabama. During the first encounter, armed officers entered a posted jobsite, detained Leonardo and questioned the validity of his Alabama STAR ID before confirming his citizenship. Less than a month later, an officer entered a nearly completed home where Leanardo was working and again detained him. 

The ruling that the court made, led by Chief U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Beaverstock, rejected the government’s argument that construction sites should be treated as open fields that officers may enter without warrants and reinforced jobsite protections. This ruling specifically temporarily stayed three Department of Homeland Security enforcement policies (found in Section 705 of the Administrative Procedure Act):  

1. Entering private construction sites without consent or a warrant 
2. Detaining workers without individualized suspicion that they are unlawfully present 
3. Continuing to detain workers after they provide evidence of citizenship or lawful status 

Overall, the court distinguished active, private workplaces marked by fencing and “No Trespassing” signs from abandoned or undeveloped property. It also recognized that employees may have a reasonable expectation of privacy in nonpublic work areas. They further found that officers must have reasonable suspicion based on specific facts before detaining someone to investigate immigration status.  

What does this mean for contractors? Law firm Adams & Reese’s Mary Kate Fernandez and Trent Cotney wrote an article breaking down the key takeaways from this case for construction contractors. This includes that “job sites are not ‘open fields,’ workers have Fourth Amendment rights on the job, REAL ID-compliant identification carries weight and site access controls matter.”  

Learn more about this case and what it means for you and your crew.