BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Three Idaho families who are U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents are suing after they and hundreds of other people were detained for hours during an aggressive immigration raid at a rural horse racing track last year.
The families say state and federal law enforcement agencies conspired to use unconstitutional and illegal tactics during the raid, including detaining people because they appeared to be Latino; keeping adults and some children in chains for hours without access to food, water or bathrooms; and searching persons without reasonable suspicion of crime.
Similar immigration networks, marked by heavy use of force, have ensnared US citizens and legal residents in other states. An Alabama construction worker and U.S. citizen who says he was detained twice by immigration agents filed a federal lawsuit in his state last year seeking an end to the Trump administration’s workplace raids targeting immigrant-intensive industries.
Other lawsuits alleging racial profiling and unconstitutional detention have had mixed results in the courts. Last year, a federal judge in California issued a restraining order barring immigration agents from stopping people based solely on their race, language, job or location, but the Supreme Court lifted that order in September in a 6-3 ruling. Judge Brett Kavanaugh wrote in a concurrence that a second judicial presumption of how immigration officers conduct brief stops for questioning would hamper legal immigration enforcement efforts. But he also suggested stops where agents use force could still face legal challenges.
The Idaho families were among about 400 people detained at the privately owned racetrack known as La Catedral, located about an hour’s drive west of Boise. The October raid came as part of an FBI-led investigation into allegations of illegal gambling, but only five people at the event were arrested in connection with the investigation. More than 100 other people were arrested on suspicion of immigration violations.
The FBI had a criminal search warrant for the gambling investigation, but the operation was essentially a “fishing expedition for immigration violations,” attorneys for the ACLU of Idaho wrote in the lawsuit.
The races are a popular family event for the local Latino community, with food vendors on site and children’s games held in conjunction with the equestrian events, the ACLU of Idaho wrote in the federal lawsuit.
“Families with young children and elderly grandparents go for an enjoyable outdoor activity, looking forward to the moments between races when children are allowed to run on the track,” the ACLU wrote. But on October 19, a swarm of 200 law enforcement officers flooded the property.
“Wearing paramilitary gear and face masks, they pointed guns and shouted orders at frightened families. They smashed the windows of cars parked on the property, sending glass pouring onto those inside, including children who had taken refuge in cars from the rain,” the ACLU wrote. “They threw accomplices to the ground and shot rubber bullets over the heads of the teenagers.”
Law enforcement officers from multiple agencies took part in the raid, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the FBI, Idaho State Police, and local police and sheriff’s deputies. The agencies did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Some of the officers used racial slurs at Latinos, and one man was hit in the head with the butt of his rifle after he told an officer he was a citizen and didn’t speak Spanish, according to the lawsuit. Others were left zipped so tightly that their skin was cut or their hands went numb.
Shortly after the raid, Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said “ICE has dismantled an illegal horse racing, animal fighting and gambling operation.” However, court documents make no mention of animal fighting and the track was licensed for horse racing. McLaughlin later added that ICE did not detain or arrest children.
Five families interviewed by The Associated Press after the raid said children as young as 11 were zipped up and several children were separated from family members for hours. Juana Rodriguez, one of the lead plaintiffs in the lawsuit, told the AP in October that her hands were bound with zip ties for nearly four hours, leaving her unable to pick up and care for her 3-year-old son. Law enforcement officers refused to let her take snacks from the child in her vehicle, even though he was crying because he was hungry and thirsty, according to the lawsuit.
Some of the inmates were denied bathroom access, forcing them to urinate outside in full view of other inmates and law enforcement, according to the lawsuit.
None of the families were questioned about the gambling, and all were eventually released after proving they were citizens or legal permanent residents. They want a federal judge to turn the lawsuit into a class action on behalf of other legal residents who were also detained and declare that law enforcement agencies violated federal law and the detainees’ constitutional rights. They also want damages in an amount to be proven at trial.
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Corrects the spelling of Judge Kavanaugh’s first name from “Brent” to “Brett”.