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The first sign that something was wrong was the sound of the helicopter’s rotors clanging overhead, followed by screaming. Within moments, Annabel Romero was on the ground with her hands tied behind her back, 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 younger siblings watched.
Romero and her daughter, both US citizens, were among about 400 people detained for hours at a privately owned race track about an hour west. boise As part of an FBI-led investigation of illegal gambling, it resulted in over 100 arrests, almost all of which were for immigration violations.
Romero isn’t sure which 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 Border Patrol, as well as local police, took part in the raid at La Catedral Arena.
The October 19 operation is a notable example of how immigration has become a major driver in federal law enforcement, demonstrating a previously unheard-of level of coordination to address President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda. It also shows how the immigration net has entangled US citizens and legal residents through the use of force.
The raid at La Catedral Arena caused panic in Canyon County, which has the highest number of Hispanic residents in Idaho and where Trump received 72% of the vote last year.
Five families interviewed by The Associated Press said authorities bound children as young as 11 with zip ties. An 8-year-old boy was hit with glass in his mouth as he screamed while officers broke his car window, he said. Many children remained separated from family members for hours.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noemwhose agency oversees Border Patrol and ICE, denied that the children were zip-tied. FBI Spokeswoman Sandra Barker initially said there were no restrictions on children or the use of rubber bullets, but she later amended that statement and replaced “children” with “young children.”
Four people were arrested at the track and a fifth the next day on gambling charges, while 105 others were detained on immigration violations.
John Carter, a track security guard, said he was restrained in zip ties and lost circulation to his hands before an FBI agent opened the zip ties. 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 are 10 people in the crowd doing something illegal, it doesn’t make everyone else in that crowd illegal,” Carter said. “Yes, I voted for Trump, I’m not ashamed to say that. But I don’t like the way it’s been handled and the claims they’re making.”
gambling charges
FBI Special Agent Jacob Sheridan said in court documents that the men charged worked on a pari-mutuel betting operation, although the track did not have a state license for it, only for horse racing.
“ICE dismantled illegal horse racing, animal fighting and gambling enterprise operations,” said Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security. However, court documents make no mention of animal fighting. He later said that ICE did not stop or arrest the children.
Canyon County Sheriff Kieran Donahue and Caldwell Police Chief Rex Ingram said in a joint statement that ICE taking credit was “completely false” and “extremely misleading” given the FBI’s leadership and local task force involvement.
Other examples of how immigration has become a focus in anti-crime campaigns 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 increased law enforcement in Washington, DC, which was promoted as focusing on crime, about 40% of the first 2,300 arrests were immigration-related.
allegation of excessive force
During the Idaho operation, many officers had no identification markings or department name on their uniforms. Some wore masks. State and local agencies either declined to detain the children or did not return calls seeking comment.
Several people told the AP that ICE officers had lifted their stops after they lined up for immigration processing, and court documents say ICE was brought in after a preliminary search warrant was executed.
Romero said that while she was nervous 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 injuries were still visible. Her 6 and 8 year old children used to wake up screaming every night. When the family passed a police cruiser, her youngest child “panicked.”
“They don’t even look at law enforcement with respect anymore,” he said. “They’re quite traumatized.”
Jahidy Perez, 21, of Nampa, was in her truck with her 5-year-old son, watching as officers tried to break the window of a separate vehicle that contained her parents and 8-year-old brother. His parents began to drive away, and an officer fired at their car.
“It was a rubber bullet, but at the time everyone was nervous. We were thinking it was real bullets,” Perez said. “My mother covered my brother with her body.”
His parents stopped their car, and officers broke a window. Glass covered her brother, Perez said — some went into his mouth. A rubber bullet hit his father in the chest.
ICE arrested her father, and Jahidi Perez was ordered to appear in immigration court in November.
His son and brother, both US citizens, are struggling, he said.
“He doesn’t really get much sleep at night. He’s not doing well at all,” she said. “My brother cries every day. This is the first birthday he is celebrating without his father.”
Some answers from law enforcement
When an officer took Jassim Duran-Villa’s 11- and 15-year-old brothers hostage, he urged his superiors to double-check.
“We told them we don’t think they should be doing this to minors,” he said. The officer said that his other children have been restrained.
Duran-Villa was not zipped up because she was carrying her 14-month-old child. The baby was hungry and needed a diaper change, but milk and diapers were in her car.
“Already 2 1/2 hours had passed, and so I was asking multiple times, ‘Can I take my diaper bag to feed my baby?’ They kept ignoring me, or telling me to ask another officer,” she said. “The baby was crying the whole time.”
After more than three hours, he was recognized as a civilian and allowed to leave. Duran-Villa’s father was arrested and charged with immigration violations.
Juana Rodriguez, a US citizen, said law enforcement agents tied her hands behind her back for nearly four hours while her 3-year-old son clung to her legs.
“They would just tell her, ‘You have to hold on to 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.
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Associated Press reporters Scott McFetridge and Rebecca Santana contributed.