Anabel Romero had left her kids eating in the car while she went to look at the horses. They were on opposite sides of the track when the raid began.
Romero said the agents wore camouflage and had their guns drawn. She had no idea who they were. So she ran and tried to hide. “They didn’t identify themselves,” Romero said. “I didn’t know who they were.”
She said unidentified officers tackled her, zip-tied her and threatened to “fucking blow your head off.”
On the other side of the track, Romero’s 14-year-old daughter, SueHey Tello, said officers surrounded their car, pointing guns at her brother, 6, and sister, 8. When Tello refused to exit the car without her younger siblings, agents pulled her so roughly out of the car that she fell, leaving bruises. She said agents zip-tied her hands.
Romero and Tello said the agents refused to remove the zip ties for hours, despite Tello’s age. The teenager said the incident has affected her view of law enforcement. Her mother says that the 6-year-old still has nightmares. Officers are meant “to keep us safe,” Tello said. “But yet they treated all of us like that.”
John Carter was working security at the track when the raid started. He had brought his girlfriend and his two children along with him. He recalls officers throwing a flash-bang near him and his son, and then the officers detained them. “They cinched the zip ties down as tight as they could,” Carter said. He said the officers also zip-tied his 14-year-old daughter but removed the restraints when he complained.
Carter explained that he is active in the local Republican Party and a strong supporter of law enforcement. But he said that what he saw officers doing that day was wrong.
“Things are supposed to be done humanely and correctly,” he said. “This wasn’t.”
The agents also detained Juana Rodriguez, who attended the event with her family. She said that she was zip-tied beside her 3-year-old son, which left her unable to pick him up and comfort him during the long hours they waited to prove their citizenship. “He wanted me to hug him, to hold him,” Rodriguez said. She and her son are both U.S. citizens and lead plaintiffs in an ACLU of Idaho lawsuit alleging the raid illegally targeted Latinos. ICE, the FBI and several Idaho agencies have denied the charge and asked that the lawsuit be dismissed.
DHS did not respond to any specific allegations made by Rodriguez, Romero, Carter or their families. Instead, a spokesperson wrote in an email statement that the raid successfully helped dismantle an illegal gambling operation, and that ICE officers “didn’t zip tie, restrain or arrest any children.” The FBI declined to comment to ProPublica but told local media no “young children” were zip-tied. DHS, the FBI and multiple Idaho law enforcement agencies have refused to share the number of U.S. citizens held that day.
