U.S. citizens and legal residents sue over aggressive immigration raid at Idaho horse racing track

Three Idaho families who are U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents are suing after they and hundreds of others 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 zip ties for hours without access to food, water or bathrooms; and searching individuals without reasonable suspicion of a crime.

Similar immigration dragnets marked by a heavy use of force have entangled U.S. 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 demanding an end to Trump administration workplace raids targeting industries with large immigrant workforces.

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 solely based on their race, language, job or location, but the Supreme Court lifted that order in September in a 6-3 ruling. Justice Brent Kavanaugh wrote in a concurrence that judicial second-guessing of how immigration officers carry out brief stops for questioning would chill lawful immigration enforcement efforts. But he also suggested stops in which agents use force could still face legal challenges.

The Idaho families were among roughly 400 people detained at the privately owned race track 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 others 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 with the ACLU of Idaho wrote in the lawsuit.

The races are a popular family-friendly event for the local Latino community, with food vendors on site and games for kids held along with the equestrian events, the ACLU of Idaho wrote in the federal lawsuit.

“Families with young children and elderly grandparents go for a nice outdoor activity, looking forward to the moments between races when kids are allowed to run down the track," the ACLU wrote. But on Oct. 19, a swarm of 200 law enforcement officers flooded the property.

“Wearing militarized gear and face coverings, they pointed guns and screamed orders at frightened families. They broke the windows of cars parked on the property, sending glass pouring on those inside, including children who had taken refuge in cars because of rain," the ACLU wrote. "They threw compliant people to the ground and shot rubber bullets over the heads of 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 epithets for Latinos and one man was hit in the head with a rifle butt after he told an officer he was a citizen and didn't speak Spanish, according to the lawsuit. Others were left in zip ties so tight that their skin was cut or their hands went numb.

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

Five families interviewed by The Associated Press after the raid said children as young as 11 were restrained with zip ties, and several children were separated from family members for hours. Juana Rodriguez, one of the lead plaintiffs in the lawsuit, told AP in October that her hands were zip-tied for almost four hours, leaving her unable to pick up and care for her 3-year-old son. Law enforcement agents refused to let her get the child snacks from her vehicle though he was crying from hunger and thirst, according to the lawsuit.

Some detainees were denied bathroom access, forcing them to urinate outside in view of other detainees and law enforcement, according to the lawsuit.

None of the families were asked questions about gambling, and all were eventually released after proving they were citizens or lawful permanent residents. They want a federal judge to make the lawsuit a class action on behalf of other legal residents who were also detained, and to declare that the law enforcement agencies violated federal law and the constitutional rights of detainees. They also want to be paid for damages in an amount to be proven at trial.