Rubber bullets, ‘animal fighting,’ zip-ties: What we know about the Idaho ICE raid
More than 100 “illegal aliens” were detained by ICE, according to the Department of Homeland Security. An immigration attorney also told the Statesman that immigrants who legally resided in the U.S. were also taken by ICE. One of them remained in custody as of Wednesday.
The FBI said ICE’s involvement in Sunday’s raid was separate from the FBI’s gambling investigation, which resulted in the arrest of five people, including the horse track’s owner. Each of them was charged with a single felony count of prohibition of an illegal gambling business, according to an indictment, and two of them were also charged with a count of transmitting wagering information.
If they’re convicted, they would have to forfeit any property or assets they obtained as part of the crimes, the indictment showed. That could include the roughly $40,000 seized by law enforcement and the Wilder property.
Ivan Tellez, the track owner, had a conditional use permit to run horse races, but the FBI said he did not have a license to conduct parimutuel betting, which involves pooling bets on results other than the winner. That type of betting is legal in Idaho with a license.
Investigators also identified six to 11 horse owners who were involved in the gambling business, according to a criminal complaint filed by FBI Special Agent Jacob Sheri. The horse owners, who were referred to as “the committee,” provided the horses used and made decisions over the race dates, betting pools and entry requirements, the complaint said. They have not been arrested.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Idaho declined to say whether it planned to charge the horse owners and told the Statesman in an email that it “cannot comment on pending investigations.”
No mention of ‘horse racing,’ ‘animal fighting’ in court filings
No agency has publicly provided evidence of additional crimes as of Thursday.
The FBI, which led the investigation, hasn’t mentioned any evidence of other crimes and called the operation an “illegal gambling business” in its news release. Publicly released court records, including criminal complaints and the indictment reviewed by the Statesman, made no mention of any other illegal activities besides the gambling.
Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, the lead spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, in the agency’s statement said immigration officers dismantled an “illegal horse racing, animal fighting and a gambling enterprise.” Gov. Brad Little’s office also described the operation to include “animal fighting” and suggested that such an event could have accompanied drug trafficking, animal abuse and “large sums of money that end up in the hands of cartel bosses.”
When asked whether Little had any reason to believe those arrested had ties to cartels, the governor’s office directed the Statesman to the FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office. His office didn’t respond to follow-up questions asking about evidence of drug and weapon trafficking.
FBI, ICE and Canyon County battle over credit for operation
Nearly a dozen local, state and federal law enforcement agencies participated in the raid with roughly 200 law enforcement personnel responding, according to the FBI. That included the Canyon County Sheriff’s Office, which covers the city of Wilder, and police from the nearby city of Caldwell.
The FBI led the investigation into alleged gambling operations, the agency said, but also clarified in a news release Monday that ICE was at the raid to process people “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,” the agency said.
But the next day, ICE took credit for the raid, adding that under President Donald Trump and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, they’re “dismantling criminal networks in the United States.”
Local law enforcement quickly disputed that claim.
Canyon County Sheriff Kieran Donahue and Caldwell Police Chief Rex Ingram in a joint statement criticized DHS for releasing a “deeply misleading” statement and credited the FBI, with help from local agencies, with the raid.
“To be clear, this was not an ICE-led enforcement action,” the pair stated. “The statement released by DHS yesterday claiming responsibility for dismantling a criminal organization was completely false and a serious misrepresentation of the facts.”
Families say their children were zip-tied
Family members of people detained said in interviews that children – including a woman’s 13-year-old sister – were zip-tied alongside adults. The Statesman spoke to three families who said their 13- and 14-year-old kids were zip-tied.
When several news outlets – including the Statesman – asked the FBI whether children were zip-tied or hit with rubber bullets, agency spokesperson Sandra Yi Barker sent out a statement calling those reports “completely false.”
But she walked it back within minutes of a Statesman reporter questioning the statement. In an updated statement, Barker clarified that “young” children weren’t zip-tied or struck with the less-lethal force.
Local police agencies and ICE all said they didn’t zip-tie any children. The Canyon County Sheriff’s Office didn’t respond to the questions.
Rubber bullets shot into crowd
Videos reviewed by the Statesman also showed several law enforcement personnel holding and firing off rubber bullets into the crowd at La Catedral Arena. None of the agencies has claimed responsibility for using less-lethal weapons.
The Nampa Police Department, which assisted in the raid, Caldwell Police Department and Idaho State Police said they didn’t fire the bullets; state police assisted only with “perimeter duties” and containing the crowd, spokesperson Aaron Snell said.
Other agencies didn’t respond to the question.
Who was detained for immigration violations?
Of the hundreds of people held at the arena, ICE arrested 105 “illegal aliens,” the Department of Homeland Security said. An immigration lawyer told the Statesman that three of her clients are legal residents and were among those arrested.
Two of them were released, while the other remained in custody as of Wednesday, said Nikki Ramirez-Smith, a Nampa-based immigration attorney.
Regional ICE spokesperson Alethea Smock declined to answer a question on whether the agency could confirm that all 105 people were in the country illegally.
Reporters Carolyn Komatsoulis and Sally Krutzig contributed.