BOISE, ID – Months after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, arrested more than hundred people in Wilder, the ACLU of Idaho alleges law enforcement used aggressive tactics and unjustly detained hundreds of people, including children.
In a federal class-action civil rights lawsuit filed Tuesday, the ACLU of Idaho argues that state and federal law enforcement officials plotted to turn what could’ve been a targeted execution of five arrest warrants on illegal gambling charges into a massive immigration raid.
“Our plaintiffs were treated as less than human because ICE and their willing partners think they can disregard fundamental rights if it gets them immigration arrests,” ACLU’s Deputy Director of Policing Jenn Rolnick Borchetta said in a statement. “From Wilder, to Minneapolis, to Chicago, the Trump administration is trampling our rights using racially biased tactics that make us all less safe. The administration can suggest that this abuse is immune from legal consequences, but it is not, and we intend to prove that in court.”
FBI backtracks on denying children were zip tied in Idaho raid, saying instead no ‘young’ kids were
The lawsuit provides first-hand accounts detailing the mass-detention tactics allegedly used at the raid of an alleged illegal horserace gambling operation at La Catedral Arena in Wilder on Oct. 19.
Two hundred law enforcement officers arrived at the scene “with armored trucks, flashbang grenades, and guns drawn,” the lawsuit alleges. “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 onto those insides, including children who had taken refuge in cars because of rain. They threw compliant people to the ground and shot rubber bullets over the heads of teenagers.”
Then, the lawsuit alleges, “law enforcement rounded up the entire crowd, zip-tied most of the adults and many teenagers, and ordered everyone onto the track.”
For four hours, hundreds of people were detained — without food, or consistent access to water, bathrooms or medical treatment, including a man who was bleeding from his head after an officer allegedly struck him with a rifle, the lawsuit claims.
Three Latino families — including parents and a child as young as age 3 — that the ACLU of Idaho is representing in the lawsuit are all lawfully present in the U.S. or U.S. citizens.
Lawsuit is against the FBI, ICE, and local law enforcement including Canyon County Sheriff, Caldwell and Nampa Police, and Idaho State Police
The lawsuit is against several local and federal law enforcement officials — including agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, ICE, Canyon County Sheriff Kieran Donahue, Caldwell Police Chief Rex Ingram, Nampa Police Chief Joe Huff, Idaho State Police Director Bill Gardiner, the cities of Caldwell and Nampa, Canyon County, and unidentified law enforcement officers.
The law enforcement agencies sued were not immediately available for comment.
Initially, the FBI denied that children were zip-tied at the raid. But the agency backtracked the claim to say that no “young children” were, the Idaho Capital Sun reported.
The FBI said it arrested five people linked to the alleged illegal horserace gambling operation. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said ICE arrested 105 people on immigration violations. About 400 people attended the event, the lawsuit says.
Local law enforcement officials said the FBI led the raid.
A day after the raid, advocates and witnesses denounced what they described as law enforcement’s aggressive tactics during the raid. Law enforcement officials released little information about raid tactics.
The lawsuit says law enforcement didn’t release people until they verified they were lawfully in the U.S. At least 70% of people detained were lawfully present in the U.S. or citizens, the lawsuit says.
“The search warrant provided Defendants with a convenient cover as they went fishing for immigration arrests of Latino individuals at a public event that drew attendees celebrating Mexican culture, in service of their shared mass deportation goals,” the lawsuit alleges.
After lining up and detaining the event crowd, the lawsuit claims officers sorted people into groups, partly on assumptions of people’s immigration status based on their skin tones.
“Law enforcement used racial epithets for Latinos and, in denying some Latino detainees water, they said ‘that’s what you get for being here,’” the lawsuit alleges.
People who appeared to be white “generally did not have guns pointed directly at them and were not treated as roughly as Latino-appearing people,” the lawsuit claims.
Lawsuit includes accounts of teenagers zip-tied
The lawsuit includes first-hand accounts from people who were detained at the raid.
One 10-year-old child represented in the lawsuit, only identified as A.S.P., went up to her father, Ivan Popoca, crying and tried to hug him when armed officers pushed her father and grabbed her by the neck. They were taken to the track, and her father was ziptied, the lawsuit says.
Later, Popoca looked for his 16-year-old son, identified as E.I.P., who he feared could be hurt or killed, the lawsuit says. Nearly an hour later, the father found him zip-tied, the lawsuit says.
When the 16-year-old was detained at gunpoint, the lawsuit says officers were yelling at them in English. The teenager translated the orders in Spanish because he knew some people nearby didn’t speak English, the lawsuit says. An officer yelled to “get the (f**k) down on the floor” or he would shoot, the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit says officers forced the teenager and his friends to their knees and zip-tied them. Officers later shot at a nearby SUV, and shots went over the head of E.I.P. and others who were on their knees, the lawsuit says.
Officers also refused to release ziptied parents to care for their small children, and refused to loosen zip-ties despite complaints of pain, the lawsuit alleges.
At several points, the lawsuit says 16-year-old E.I.P. told officers that his zip-ties were too tight. His wrists bruised and hurt for more than a week, the lawsuit says.
Another teenager, a 15-year-old identified only as Y.Z., was denied loosened zip-ties for a couple hours despite asking, the lawsuit says. When he asked again, as his wrists turned red, the lawsuit alleges an officer laughed, said his ties were too loose and tightened them. About half an hour later, the 15-year-old “started to feel the sting of sweat entering an open wound on his now-bleeding wrists,” the lawsuit said.
He still has visible scars from the zip-ties, the lawsuit says. An officer later cut them at his request, the lawsuit says.
The lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, Juana Rodriguez, is now scared to attend Latino cultural and other public events. She worries her 3-year-old son is “scared of police,” the lawsuit states. He “now notices law enforcement officers wherever he goes,” the lawsuit says.
Rodriguez v Porter filing ACLU raid Wilder lawsuit
Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Christina Lords for questions: info@idahocapitalsun.com.
