A Sunday at an Idaho Racetrack Ended in a Mass Immigration Raid. Hundreds Faced Cruel Detention Practices.

Families gathered at La Catedral racetrack in Wilder, Idaho expected a normal Sunday of horse races, games, and food. Instead, around lunchtime, masked officers stormed La Catedral with armored trucks, helicopters, and automatic rifles drawn. They threw flashbang grenades into cars and shattered windows onto those inside, including children taking refuge from the rain. Families were separated and zip-tied at gunpoint as officers shouted racial slurs about Latinos. What started out as a calm Sunday outing turned into a militarized raid targeting hundreds of people.

More than 200 federal, state, and local law enforcement officers launched a dragnet immigration raid at La Catedral racetrack on October 19. Citing a narrow search warrant tied to alleged unlicensed gambling, agents swept up hundreds of Latino individuals for immigration arrests, pushing far beyond the warrant’s scope and ignoring core protections in the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments.

In response, the ACLU, ACLU of Idaho, and Stoel Rives filed a putative class action lawsuit on February 10 against the federal, state, and local agencies that coordinated the unlawful and discriminatory raid. We are representing three Latino families, who are U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents, including children ages 3 to 16. Our lawsuit argues that the operation violated the Constitution by unlawfully detaining hundreds of event attendees because of their Latino ethnicity.

The raid at La Catedral is part of a broader pattern under the second Trump Administration of federal agencies colluding with local law enforcement to abuse narrow criminal warrants for mass immigration fishing expeditions targeted at Latinos. At least eight federal, state, and local agencies — including the Canyon County Sheriff, Caldwell Police Department, Nampa Police Department, Idaho State Police, FBI, and ICE — coordinated the raid at La Catedral. Their search warrant allowed police to temporarily detain those in the immediate vicinity of the search location, which included small buildings on the racetrack grounds. Yet, they used this legal window to harass and detain around 400 people in an open field public event, including U.S. citizens and children, using military-style weapons. Those who were unlawfully detained did not have access to food, water, or bathrooms.

Masked agents screamed threats at visibly shaken families, shot rubber bullets over teenagers’ heads, and shoved compliant people to the ground. Adults and teenagers were zip-tied at gunpoint, while parents were prevented from feeding or comforting their crying children. After four hours of degrading treatment, and without providing medical attention to those in need, ICE agents questioned each person about their immigration status and refused to release anyone until they could prove they were lawfully in the United States.

State and federal law enforcement claim they detained hundreds at La Catedral under an exception to the Fourth Amendment that allows police to briefly detain those nearby to safely complete a search. But the criminal search warrant that law enforcement secured was tied to a low-level, nonviolent gambling offense involving just five people. Still, officers brutally zip-tied and detained around 400 people, including teenagers and children who were not under investigation, and questioned attendees about immigration status, not gambling. The mass detention of hundreds, overwhelming use of force, and military-grade weapons were staggeringly disproportionate to any legitimate law enforcement need — and a direct violation of Fourth Amendment protections. This was no ordinary search warrant execution; this was a dragnet operation for immigration arrests at significant cost to those detained.

Events at La Catedral consistently draw crowds that are almost entirely Latino. And as the Trump administration issues quotas demanding 3,000 immigration arrests per day, law enforcement targeted the racetrack in part because they knew they would encounter a large gathering of Latino community members.

Before, during, and after the raid, our lawsuit argues that officers engaged in discriminatory treatment and violated equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment. Police referred to Latinos as “monsters” and “enemies” that must be removed and equated being Latino with being undocumented. During the raid, officers sorted families based in part on perceived immigration status, wrongly assuming that dark-skinned individuals or anyone who spoke Spanish were in the U.S. unlawfully. They also denied water to some, saying things like, “that’s what you get for being here.” The raid’s shocking disregard for the safety and rights of event attendees has left many traumatized.

Ultimately, the raid at La Catedral is part of a larger pattern. In similar raids in Austin, Colorado Springs, and Cato, the Trump administration conspired with local law enforcement to blow open narrow criminal warrants and target Latino communities. We must remind them that these abuses will not go unanswered. While we cannot undo the trauma inflicted on these families, we can hold those in power to account and ensure no one else endures this treatment in the future.