WILDER, ID – The Federal Bureau of Investigations raided an alleged illegal horserace gambling operation in southwest Idaho on Sunday.

But as officials release little information about the raid — which about 200 local, state and federal law enforcement officers helped with — advocates who were at the scene are denouncing the aggressive tactics they say they saw used.

At a news conference Monday organized by the ACLU of Idaho, advocates said that everyone attending the venue in Wilder was detained, children were zip-tied, and people were struck with rubber bullets.

Jeanette Orozco described what she said she saw while she waited for her dad to be released.

“We saw piles of zip ties on the floor. We saw people being put into vans,” she said at the news conference, as counterprotestors blared audio from a speech by President Donald Trump. “We saw people being put into buses.”

In a news release Sunday, the FBI said four people were arrested and charged in law enforcement’s execution of a federal search warrant at a horse racetrack site in Wilder called La Catedral Arena. A fifth person was arrested Monday night.

The FBI canceled a news conference planned for Monday afternoon, where an FBI agent and Canyon County Sheriff Kieran Donahue were planning to speak.

ACLU of Idaho Executive Director Leo Morales condemned the tactics.

“The government came in full force, military-style, helicopters, drones and arrested and handcuffed, everyone … including children,” Morales told reporters at a news conference near the Canyon County Courthouse in Caldwell. “No person, no Idahoan, no American should ever accept whenever a government does this to its own people.”

What the FBI has said

About 200 law enforcement personnel helped with the raid, the FBI said, including personnel from U.S. Immigrations and Custom Enforcement; Homeland Security Investigations; the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; the Caldwell and Nampa police departments; the Canyon County Sheriff’s Office; Idaho State Police and the Idaho Department of Correction.

FBI spokesperson Sandra Yi Barker said ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division helped “process individuals who were found to have potential immigration violations during the course of the investigation. Their presence was limited to that specific federal responsibility and was separate from the criminal gambling investigation being led by the FBI.”

Barker said the FBI’s news conference was canceled because law enforcement officials didn’t have more information to share publicly beyond a criminal complaint filed in federal court. The document details the investigation, but does specify law enforcement’s tactics during the raid.

“As this case moves through the judicial process, we will continue to provide updates when appropriate,” Barker said in a statement.

Immigration attorney says everyone attending was detained

Nikki Ramirez-Smith, an immigration attorney who said she was at the raid, said it appeared everyone at the venue Sunday was detained — including children.

“We do have credible information that the children were zip-tied and tied up and handcuffed,” she told reporters at a news conference.

She said many people remain detained, including some who have no criminal history. She said it appears all children have been released.

“I think there is going to be a lot of children in this community that are severely disturbed and upset about what happened. And I think the community needs to rally around those kids — because this was a family event,” Ramirez-Smith said. “There were toddlers there; there were 5-year-olds there. There were a number of little children who were detained, and watched a very horrific and traumatic event that I think went way beyond what was necessary.”

Ramirez-Smith said she also witnessed personnel in military uniforms that looked like the National Guard. Idaho National Guard spokesperson Lt. Col. Christopher Borders told the Idaho Capital Sun that the Idaho military unit “did not have any Guard personnel there.”

The FBI could not be immediately reached for comment on the raid tactics.

What the FBI’s criminal complaint says  

In a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court of Idaho on Oct. 15, FBI Special Agent Jacob Sheridan detailed the investigation into the Wilder horse racetrack that appeared to follow a tip in February.

The complaint alleges five people were involved in the illegal gambling business at La Catedral Arena including Ivan Tellez, who allegedly owns the property and administered the operation. The FBI’s criminal complaint says Tellez is a legal permanent resident of the U.S.

Morales, with the ACLU of Idaho, said law enforcement could’ve taken a more strategic approach.

“But they chose to do it in the harshest, most inhumane way — by using the entire force possible, including military operation-style, to conduct this operation. What’s left now is trauma,” he said.

This story first appeared on Idaho Capital Sun.