At La Catedral Arena in Wilder, a local horse racetrack popular among the Spanish-speaking community west of Boise, families enjoy the free raffles, vendors and food. It’s common to see hundreds of children there on a race day, said Nikki Ramirez-Smith, a Nampa-based immigration lawyer.
Those children, Ramirez-Smith said, ended up being among the targets of a Sunday raid on La Catedral Arena over what law enforcement called an FBI investigation into illegal horse betting.
“It’s a family event,” Ramirez-Smith told the Idaho Statesman on Sunday. “It’s just like when Americans go to a rodeo. … Some people are gambling, but it’s very few. I would say probably — I mean, I can’t even say how many — but 90% of people there are not gambling.”
Agencies participating in the raid included the FBI, the Canyon County Sheriff’s Office, Homeland Security, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Drug Enforcement Administration, Idaho State Police, the Idaho Department of Correction, the Nampa Police Department and the Caldwell Police Department, according to an FBI press release.
The police response included a helicopter and drones, Ramirez-Smith said.
Ramirez-Smith said her phone began “blowing up” with clients begging her to come help them. She jumped in her car and spent hours with anxious families outside the racetrack.
Law enforcement rounded up every person at the racetrack, Ramirez-Smith said, including children. She said it was difficult to estimate an exact number, but guessed somewhere between 500 and 1,000 people.
They were zip-tied and questioned about their immigration status, Ramirez-Smith said. Children were taken from their parents, she said.
“There’s going to be a lot of kids who were severely traumatized by being tied up,” Ramirez-Smith said.
A crowd that materialized at the racetrack, most of whom were seeking detained relatives, grew agitated after an hour with no answers.
“A lot of people were saying: ‘My kids are in there, my spouse is in there. What is happening? My family member is a U.S. citizen. Why are they still in there?’ ” Ramirez-Smith recalled.
Viviana Gonzalez, a Jerome native and Utah-based immigration attorney, told the Statesman she was a state away when her mom video-called on Facebook Messenger on Sunday afternoon from the racetrack. Her mom was crying, Gonzalez recalled in a phone interview. Gonzalez said the video call showed armed agents and people running.
Gonzalez’s mom, dad and 13-year-old sister were at the racetrack for their clothing business, El Color De Mi Tierra. The family goes to a lot of those events to run a booth, Gonzalez said.
After about 45 minutes on the call, agents took her dad behind white vans, Gonzalez told the Statesman. In the distance, she could see officers surrounding her father, she said.
“My mom, again, started to kind of have this panic. She didn’t know again what was happening,” Gonzalez said. “I could hear the people around her and I could hear the kids crying, scared, not knowing what was going to happen to their parents.”
Both her parents are permanent residents, Gonzalez said, and her sister is a U.S. citizen.
Gonzalez stayed on the phone for hours, until her mother and sister hung up once officers approached to zip-tie them, she said. Gonzalez called them repeatedly, for 15 to 20 minutes, until her sister was able to maneuver her hands and answer the phone, she said.
Gonzalez got on the road and started driving to Idaho, she said.
Her family was eventually released. They packed up their booth and drove back to Jerome, Gonzalez said. It was “really nice,” for Gonzalez, who had arrived back in the Gem State, to hug her family.
“This is not something that a U.S. citizen, 13-year-old girl, should ever experience,” Gonzalez said. “There were younger children than her that they saw were being zip-tied.”
Ramirez-Smith said she saw panic set in after rumors spread about what was happening to the children. The crowd surged forward; they were shoved back and rubber bullets were fired into the crowd, she said. It was unclear who was controlling the crowd.
Many of those rounded up in the raid were eventually released, with agents sending them off into a neighboring farmer’s field, according to Ramirez-Smith, who was in the field witnessing releases. All children held were eventually released, according to Ramirez-Smith and the American Civil Liberties Union.
Members of the ACLU were in Wilder assisting families affected by the raid. The ACLU held a community meeting Sunday evening in a Wilder gym to collect information, answer questions and connect those affected with resources. They asked anyone with information, photos or videos of the raid to call the ACLU at 208-344-9750, extension 5, and leave a detailed voicemail.
One woman who spoke to the Statesman at a community meeting held by the ACLU on Sunday night said she got a video call from her mother during the raid. The woman declined to provide her name for fear of repercussions for her mother.
“She FaceTimed me and they were pointing guns at her, yelling to get down,” the woman said. “My heart tightened. I was paralyzed.”
Her mother does not have legal status, but her case has been pending, according to the woman. She said she was worried about her mother not having the medication she takes for her mental health.
She tracked her mother using the location app on her phone. Eventually, her location disappeared after reaching Boise, she said.
The FBI announced shortly before 9 p.m. Sunday that it had arrested four people in connection with illegal gambling that allegedly occurred at the racetrack, including Ivan Tellez, 37, of Wilder; Samuel Bejarano, 37, of Nyssa, Oregon; Dayana Fajardo, 39, of Nyssa; and Alejandro Estrada, 56, of Buhl.
The FBI scheduled a press conference for Monday afternoon but then canceled it.
“ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) division was present as part of the broader federal team to process individuals who were found to have potential immigration violations during the course of the investigation,” the FBI said in a press release. “Their presence was limited to that specific federal responsibility and was separate from the criminal gambling investigation being led by the FBI.”
