The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Tuesday against federal, state and local law enforcement agencies following an October immigration raid at a racetrack in Idaho. About 400 people, including U.S. citizens and children, were detained for four hours while they were denied food and water in the raid, according to the lawsuit.
The raid took place at La Catedral racetrack in Wilder, a popular destination that draws Latino families and celebrates Mexican culture.
The 64-page class-action complaint alleges that more than 200 officers in armored trucks and helicopters descended on the arena on Oct. 19. The officers had flash-bang grenades, and their guns were drawn, the ACLU said in a news release.
“Parents and children were zip tied at gunpoint, and agents subjected people to hours of violent and degrading treatment,” it said.
The ACLU and the ACLU of Idaho filed the lawsuit on behalf of a putative class and three Latino families who are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents. A putative class action is a lawsuit brought by one or more named plaintiffs on behalf of a potential group.
The suit names multiple agencies as defendants, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the FBI and Idaho State Police, as well as local agencies.
“The facts haven’t changed: ICE helped dismantle an illegal horse-racing, animal fighting, and a gambling enterprise operation out of a property known as [La Catedral] Arena in Wilder, Idaho and lawfully arrested more than 105 illegal aliens,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “ICE didn’t zip tie, restrain, or arrest any children. Plaintiff’s lawsuit is just another attempt to obstruct President Trump from delivering on the American people’s mandate for mass deportations of illegal aliens.”
The FBI said it declines to comment on potential or pending litigation. An FBI spokesperson initially said no restraints or rubber bullets were used on children but later amended that statement, replacing “children” with “young children,” according to The Associated Press.
The other agencies did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday.
According to the lawsuit, people were shoved to the ground, zip-tied, forcibly dragged out of their cars and denied food, water and the bathroom in “inhumane conditions.” The news release alleged that officers shot rubber bullets and threw flash-bang grenades into vehicles “that had people sitting inside.”
Juana Rodriguez, a U.S. citizen born in Idaho, said she was among those detained. The ACLU said in its news release that her 3-year-old son cried as officers told him to hold on to her pocket.
Rodriguez said their family outing became a “nightmare,” according to the ACLU.
“My toddler was forced to witness an incredible amount of violence against people he loves and hear racial slurs about Latinos, experiences that no child should ever be exposed to,” she said in a statement. “I’ll never forget hearing his little voice pleading with me to give him food and water for hours on end. As a parent, nothing is more heartbreaking than hearing your child cry out in fear and being told you cannot hold or comfort them.”
She said she joined the lawsuit “because I know what happened to me was wrong and because no family should be treated this way again.”
The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, says the raid was due, in part, to an investigation into allegations of illegal gambling. It says five people involved in the alleged gambling were taken into custody soon after law enforcement arrived at the arena.
Still, officers used racial slurs and sorted everyone in the crowd into groups “based on perceived immigration status,” the lawsuit says.
Jenn Rolnick Borchetta, deputy director of policing at the ACLU, said people were treated “less than human.”
Leo Morales, executive director of the ACLU of Idaho, said in a statement: “In moments like this, we ask ourselves: is this the kind of society we want to be? Those children and their mothers are traumatized for life. It is heartbreaking that federal, state, and local police turned a family-friendly event into a place of nightmares.”
According to the ACLU, the detainees were taken into a tent where ICE officers are alleged to have interrogated each person about their status.
“No one was set free unless and until they verified lawful presence in the United States,” the lawsuit says.
Most of the detainees were released. The ACLU said 105 people were arrested “for alleged immigration violations,” according to the lawsuit.
In November, a federal judge ordered the release of 16 people who were detained, ruling that keeping migrants jailed without bond violated their due process rights. U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill ordered that they be released while they waited for their immigration cases to be resolved.
