FBI raid at Idaho horse track shows how immigration is a top focus across law enforcement

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The first sign something was amiss was the thwack of helicopter rotors overhead, followed by screams. Within moments, Anabel Romero was on the ground with her hands restrained behind her, she said, as law enforcement officers brandishing guns removed her 14-year-old daughter from a nearby truck and zip-tied the teen while her young siblings looked on.

Romero and her daughter, both U.S. citizens, were among about 400 people detained for hours at a privately owned race track about an hour west of Boise as part an FBI-led investigation into illegal gambling that resulted in more than 100 arrests, nearly all for immigration violations.

Romero isn’t sure what agency the officers who zip-tied her daughter were from. More than 200 officers from at least 14 agencies, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol, as well as local police, participated in the raid at La Catedral Arena.

The Oct. 19 operation is a striking example of how immigration has become a major driver across federal law enforcement, demonstrating a previously unheard of level of coordination to address President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda. It also shows how immigration dragnets marked by a heavy use of force have entangled U.S. citizens and legal residents.

The raid on La Catedral Arena struck nerves in Canyon County, which has the most Hispanic residents in Idaho and where Trump got 72% of the vote last year.

Five families interviewed by The Associated Press said officers zip-tied children as young as 11. They said an 8-year-old boy got glass in his mouth as he screamed while officers broke his car window. Several children were separated from family members for hours.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose agency oversees Border Patrol and ICE, denied that children were zip-tied. FBI spokesperson Sandra Barker initially said no restraints or rubber bullets were used on children but later amended that statement, replacing “children” with “young children.”

Four people at the track, and a fifth the next day, were arrested on gambling charges, while 105 others were detained on immigration violations.

John Carter, a track security guard, said he was placed in zip ties and lost circulation in his hands before an FBI agent loosened them. Carter said officers used flash-bang devices, pointed guns at people, and deployed a pepper bomb in a vehicle where someone tried to hide.

“It’s OK to take your family to a public event. Just because there’s 10 people in a crowd doing something illegal, that doesn’t make everyone in that crowd illegal,” Carter said. “Yes, I voted for Trump, I’m not ashamed to say it. But I don’t like the way this was handled and the claims they are making.”

The gambling charges

FBI Special Agent Jacob Sheridan said in court documents that the people charged worked on a pari-mutuel betting operation, although the track did not have a state license for that, only for horse racing.

Tricia McLaughlin, a Homeland Security Department spokeswoman, said, “ICE dismantled an illegal horse-racing, animal fighting, and a gambling enterprise operation.” However, court documents make no mention of animal fighting. She later added that ICE did not restrain or arrest children.

Canyon County Sheriff Kieran Donahue and Caldwell Police Chief Rex Ingram said in a joint statement that it was “completely false” and “deeply misleading” for ICE to take credit, noting the FBI’s leadership and the involvement of a local task force.

Other examples of how immigration has become a focus in anti-crime operations include a sting involving the FBI in October that targeted illegal street vending in Manhattan’s Chinatown, as well as recent efforts in Memphis, Tennessee. During Trump’s law enforcement surge in Washington, D.C., touted as focusing on crime, about 40% of the first 2,300 arrests were immigration-related.

Allegations of excessive force

During the Idaho operation, many officers did not appear to have any identifying marks or department names on their uniforms. Some wore masks. State and local agencies either denied restraining children or did not return calls seeking comment.

Several people told the AP that ICE officers removed their restraints once they were put in line for immigration processing, and court documents say ICE was brought in after the initial search warrant was executed.

Romero said that when she was unnerved about being separated from her children for hours, an agent laughed and said, “We’re taking better care of them.”

Several days later, Romero said her daughter’s bruises were still visible. Her 6- and 8-year-old woke up screaming each night. When the family drove past a police cruiser, her youngest “freaked out.”

“They don’t even see law enforcement anymore with respect,” she said. “They’re pretty shook up.”

Jehidi Perez, 21, of Nampa, was in her truck with her 5-year-old son, watching as authorities tried to break a window of a separate vehicle her parents and 8-year-old brother were in. Her parents started to drive away, and an officer shot at their car.

“It was a rubber bullet, but at the time everybody was panicking. We were thinking that it was actual bullets,” Perez said. “My mother covered my brother with her body.”

Her parents stopped their car, and officers shattered a window. Glass covered her brother — some went into his mouth, Perez said. A rubber bullet struck her father’s chest.

ICE arrested her father, and Jehidi Perez was ordered to appear in immigration court in November.

Her son and her brother, both U.S. citizens, are struggling, she said.

“They can’t really get much sleep at night. They are not doing good at all,” she said. “My brother cries every day. This is the first birthday he’s spending without his dad.”

Few answers from law enforcement

When an officer zip-tied Jasim Duran-Villa’s 11- and 15-year-old brothers, she urged him to double-check with his superiors.

“We did tell them that we didn’t think that was something that they should be doing to minors,” she said. The officer told her other children had been restrained.

Duran-Villa wasn’t zip-tied because she was carrying her 14-month-old child. The baby was hungry and needed a diaper change, but the milk and diapers were in her car.

“Already like 2 1/2 hours had passed, and that’s why I was asking so many times, ‘Can I go get my diaper bag to get my baby some milk?’ They kept ignoring me, or saying to ask another officer,” she said. “The baby was crying the whole time.”

After more than three hours, they were identified as citizens and allowed to leave. Duran-Villa’s father was arrested and charged with an immigration violation.

Juana Rodriguez, a U.S. citizen, said law enforcement agents zip-tied her hands behind her back for almost four hours while her 3-year-old son clung to her legs.

“They would just tell him, ‘You need to hold your mom’s shirt.’ When he would go a little away from me, they would push him back to me and say, ‘Keep him with you!’” Rodriguez said.

She was eventually allowed to leave, and ICE arrested her father.

“I told him not to sign anything because I’m working to get him out,” she said.

Associated Press reporters Scott McFetridge and Rebecca Santana contributed.