US citizens and legal residents have sued an Idaho horse racing track over an aggressive immigration raid

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Three Idaho families who are U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents are suing after an aggressive immigration raid at a rural horse race track last year detained them and hundreds of others for hours.

The families say state and federal law enforcement agencies conspired to use unconstitutional tactics during the raids, including arresting people because they looked Latino; keeping adults and some children in zip ties for hours without access to food, water or a bathroom; and searches of persons without reasonable suspicion of guilt.

Similar immigration dragnets, marked by heavy use of force, have confused American citizens and legal residents in other states. An Alabama construction worker and U.S. citizen who says he was detained twice by immigration agents filed a federal lawsuit last year demanding an end to the Trump administration’s workplace raids targeting industries with large immigrant workforces in his state.

Other cases alleging racial profiling and unconstitutional detention have had mixed results in the courts. Last year, a federal judge in California issued a restraining order barring immigration agents from stopping people based on their race, language, job or location, but the Supreme Court struck down that order in a 6-3 decision in September. Justice Brett Cavanaugh wrote in a concurrence that judicial second-guessing how immigration officials make short stops for questioning would chill legal immigration enforcement efforts. But he suggested agents could still face legal challenges to stop using force.

The Idaho raid targeted an event popular among local Latino families

The Idaho families were among about 400 people detained at a privately owned race track known as La Catedral, an hour west of Boise. The October raid came amid an FBI-led investigation into alleged illegal gambling, but only five people were arrested in connection with the incident. More than 100 others were arrested on suspicion of immigration violations.

The FBI had a criminal search warrant for the gambling investigation, but the operation was essentially a “fishing operation for immigration violations,” attorneys with the ACLU of Idaho wrote in the lawsuit.

The races are a popular family-friendly event for the local Latino community, where food vendors are present and games for children are held, in addition to equestrian events.

“Families with young children and elderly grandparents go for a great outdoor activity, looking forward to the moments between races when children are allowed to run on the track,” the ACLU wrote. But on October 19, a swarm of 200 law enforcement officers flooded the property.

“Wearing paramilitary gear and face coverings, they pointed guns and shouted orders at the terrified families,” the ACLU wrote.

Multiple agencies participated in the raid, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the FBI, Idaho State Police, and local police and sheriff’s deputies.

“We take this matter seriously and are committed to following the legal process with integrity and professionalism,” said Nampa Mayor Rick Hoagabom. Both the city and Nampa’s police chief are named as defendants. The FBI and the Canyon County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment. The other defendants did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Homeland Security Department spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin later said that “ICE dismantled illegal horse racing, animal fighting and gambling enterprises.” However, court documents make no mention of animal fighting, and the track was licensed for horse racing. McLaughlin later added that ICE did not detain or detain the children.

The ACLU said officials treated Latino detainees worse than white detainees

Some officers used racial slurs for Latinos, and used more force against people perceived to be Latino than against white-looking detainees, Jane Rolnick Borchetta, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, said at a news conference Tuesday. Some detainees were left in zip ties so that their skin was cut or their hands were numb. Others were denied bathroom access, forcing them to urinate outside in plain sight, according to the lawsuit.

“I have never seen such direct evidence of racial targeting, and racial targeting, as in this case,” Borchetta said.

Five families later told The Associated Press that the 11-year-old had been restrained, and the children had been separated from family members for hours. Juana Rodriguez, one of the lead plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said in October that her hands were zip-tied for nearly four hours, preventing her from picking up and caring for her 3-year-old son.

None of the families were questioned about gambling, and they were released after proving citizenship or legal permanent residency. They want a federal judge to make the case a class action and declare that law enforcement agencies violated federal law and the constitutional rights of prisoners. They also want to pay for damages in an amount that will be proven at trial.

The family says law enforcement agencies conspired to violate civil rights

The lawsuit relies on the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, the 14th Amendment’s promise of equal protection, and three post-Civil War federal laws created to combat the campaign of violence against the newly freed black population.

Section 1983 gives state and local government employees the right to sue for civil rights violations. Section 1985 makes it illegal for two or more persons to conspire to interfere with someone’s civil rights, and Section 1986 states that the persons may be liable for damages if they knew of the conspiracy to violate the civil rights and neglected to try to prevent the wrongdoing.

“I want to be clear about what this was: a coordinated government scheme to weaponize arrest warrants as a cover for large-scale racial profiling,” said Paul Carlos Southwick, ACLU of Idaho legal director. “The real purpose was to deport hundreds of innocent people while spreading terror in the Latino community, no matter the human cost.”

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Corrects the spelling of Justice Cavanaugh’s first name from ‘Brent’ to ‘Brett’.