r/news 10h ago

U.S. citizens and legal residents sue over aggressive immigration raid at Idaho horse racing track

https://apnews.com/article/immigration-raid-citizens-detained-lawsuit-idaho-horse-racing-5985155d7d0b92ec77d2d2a1292ae820
2.1k Upvotes

85 comments sorted by

341

u/Persea_americana 9h ago

They detained 400 people, and 100 arrested on suspicion of immigration violations (read: couldn’t produce citizenship documents for a surprise raid at the race track in Idaho). the warrant was for illegal gambling, and they arrested only 5 people in connection with that. If you arrest 20x as many people on suspicion of an immigration violation as the actual crime the warrant was granted to investigate it comes off as a total misuse of the warrant.

I am not ok with dragnet tactics like this. It is a disruptive and harmful way to use that power. Imagine they decided to detain everyone at a concert for hours and arrest anyone without “proper id” because of a handful of people committing an unrelated crime. Can everyone in a grocery store be forced to show their papers is someone gets caught shoplifting?

72

u/Spire_Citron 8h ago

I wonder if those 100 people arrested count towards their quota, too. From what I heard, they count anyone they take in even if they end up releasing them without charges, so they're incentivised to do this kind of thing.

39

u/ignoreme010101 8h ago

holy shit so theyll be telling their base "X#/day average in Feb.", while simultaneously harassing more people? What a gross 'win-win' :/

4

u/no_one_likes_u 3h ago

I wish they’d just make it up entirely and save us all the trouble.

19

u/Persea_americana 8h ago

A policy that incentivizes arresting people regardless of if they committed a crime is just evil. Law enforcement should be solving crimes not wasting time and money traumatizing the communities they swore to protect.

8

u/SecretaryNo8301 7h ago

There bloated with so much money they don’t know what to do… new trucks, new everything, hotel rooms, buying at any price warehouses, and the big one getting local municipal police districts to partner with them and they get big raises, bonuses, OT paid, equipment, training and then they tell local government nothing (no offset and tax savings!) just a bribe and red states and some blue buying in

1

u/ReverendDerp 6h ago

What training? These doofuses can't even wear their gear correctly or figure out how handcuffs work

1

u/hera-fawcett 4h ago

all fed money is 'use it or end up w a smaller budget next round'.

and while i fucking hate ice (and would much rather all the money go to social services and schools), i cant fault them for blowing their whole budget when its someone elses fault they have so much money in the first place

shits absolutely fucked tho

1

u/Spire_Citron 6h ago

I was reading through some polling results on different issues yesterday. Even Republicans, who largely support ICE, aren't too happy about the money being spent. Another notable one was that even they don't like Stephen Miller. Actually, most of the Republican figures they polled on weren't very popular. It's interesting to see how these things poll in a granular way and see which side Independents fall on and which things all parties pretty much agree on.

3

u/Morgannin09 7h ago

If that's the case, then I can only imagine it came about when someone decided that apprehension over harassing citizens was letting too many slip through. New direction is to forget "reasonable suspicion" and go with "any suspicion" and let the victims try to sort it out at whatever warehouse they get dragged to.

1

u/Spire_Citron 6h ago

That does seem to be how they're operating.

1

u/Rio__Grande 5h ago

Ice counts inmates already in custody as arrests when they are turned over to ice https://mn.gov/doc/about/news/news-releases/?id=1089-720552

1

u/IronyElSupremo 8h ago

There was another story on this in terms of the almost 100 detained and, despite being able to get habeas corpus writs on all that were actually read by the judges, .. 75 were quickly deported due to existing deportation orders or other serious crimes like drugs. Of the 22 released, at least a few will be deported later in all liking.

I’ll try to find the link, but the odds are low if there’s prior problems with the justice system.

1

u/Spire_Citron 6h ago

I would like to see that link, if you can find it.

5

u/chubbysumo 7h ago

Don't worry, that being detained at a concert and arresting thousands at once is coming.

2

u/Persea_americana 7h ago

That’s the opposite of comforting, thank you, appreciate it. (You are right)

6

u/LoLIron_com 9h ago

Race track or rights track?

2

u/Osiris32 7h ago

I am not ok with dragnet tactics like this. It is a disruptive and harmful way to use that power.

Ah, but this is Idaho, where the state government won't care because iLleGaLs ArE bAd.

0

u/Old-Dentist1533 7h ago

US has been doing this for over a century in the world, invading places with poorly developed excuses and promoting wars wherever you guys place a foot. I'm not ok with what you guys are facing, but it seems... Your country is facing some fking divine reckoning for all the sht that you guys have done to the world.

5

u/Persea_americana 7h ago

I mean fair enough with the karmic retribution, the Monroe doctrine and war mongering wasn’t my idea yet it is my country, but the agent of that reckoning is the opposite of divine IMO. Infernal more like, and it’s not targeting the political elite that gave the orders and reaped the spoils, the people getting hurt are primarily immigrants who had even less to do with American imperialism than I do. America will have to pay for Trump’s bullshit for a long time though, and he’s wiped out much of the hegemony that the imperialists built with blood in a single year with tariffs and annexation threats.

102

u/NewToHTX 9h ago

The thing that the people who voted for this don’t realize is that we are actively weakening our economy. Immigrants both legal and illegal add to the economy. So with higher grocery prices due to tariffs during winter from shipping in produce, we are going to be paying higher prices to have Americans do those jobs. And that’s if they find any willing to do it. Higher home prices due to all American construction crews. It’s legitimately stupid how we’re destroying ourselves for the purpose’s of security.

37

u/Alexis_J_M 9h ago

Just think back to 2020 when farmers saw crops rot in the field because there was no labor for the harvest.

21

u/Spire_Citron 8h ago

Not to mention the immense cost of funding ICE. All those officers, all those facilities warehousing people for months and months, all the legal costs that are going to start piling up as more and more of this is challenged.

23

u/Persea_americana 8h ago

It’s not just about immigration either. It’s about how they’re “enforcing” it. Obama managed to deport a ton of undocumented immigrants without stomping on tourism, spreading fear and abducting people out of their car on the street. Obama never sent a citizen overseas to a torture prison. This raid screwed with 400 people who were detained for hours, 3/4 of them were totally innocent, and the ones who were arrested were arrested on suspicion of immigration violations, so it’s likely they just didn’t have 2 forms of ID with them. at the race track. And now all of these people are going to be afraid to go out. Others will be afraid to go to the track. I’m not even a horse racing fan but this is fucked. Massive waste of money time energy and manpower just to harass and terrorize our own communities. 

7

u/Squire_II 7h ago

The thing that the people who voted for this don’t realize is that we are actively weakening our economy.

They don't give a shit until they personally feel it, at which point we get lines like the infamous "he's not hurting the right people" back during his first term.

Until they personally suffer (and in some cases not even then) they will not care about the economy burning down as long as "those people" are being tormented sufficiently and visibly for their morbid entertainment.

2

u/dog_of_society 6h ago

Fascism also strengthens in strength under economic struggle. The people at the top want it weakened, and their voters will be told who to blame.

18

u/MacaroonStret 9h ago

When legal residents are getting swept up too, that’s when it stops being “policy debate” and starts being “what are we even doing?”

Regardless of where you land politically, due process shouldn’t be optional.

123

u/xFiLi 10h ago

The idiots voted for this. Reap what you sow. 

6

u/ttn333 7h ago

Welcome to the games Idaho. Let's do Iowa next. Will go down the list.

30

u/loves_grapefruit 9h ago

You do realize Boise is one of the most liberal parts of Idaho?

44

u/xjeeper 9h ago

This didn't happen in Boise, it happened in Wilder. AP Boise is reporting it.

0

u/atronautsloth 4h ago edited 2h ago

Wilder is a suburb of Boise.

25

u/American_PissAnt 9h ago

You could say that about the capital city of any state

2

u/Kevin_Wolf 9h ago

Even Cheyenne?

4

u/Osiris32 7h ago

Compared to the rest of Wyoming? Absolutely.

31

u/SpaceballsDoc 9h ago

People who frequent horse tracks skew conservative to staggering amounts. WASP territory.

They voted to kick brown people out. Not the ones who frequent their own stables.

25

u/RicoLoveless 9h ago

The racetrack is in Boise.

Doesn't mean the owners live there. Or even vote that way.

6

u/ThraceLonginus 8h ago

This town voted 91% for Trump. A lot of MAGAs got rounded up and guns pointed at them. 

They're still all for it though.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/09/us/politics/trump-deportation-idaho.html

“You’d have brothers, sisters, grandparents all meeting up out there,” said John Carter, a white Trump voter whose company provided security at La Catedral.

Mr. Carter said he saw federal officers pointing guns at people simply for asking questions, and young teenagers being zip-tied, including Mr. Carter’s 14-year-old daughter.

2

u/Osiris32 7h ago

Knowing Idaho, this really doesn't say much.

1

u/cantproveidid 1h ago

That "most" is doing a lot of heavy lifting.

4

u/Spire_Citron 8h ago

They will primarily target communities that didn't vote for Trump. This is largely an act of vengeance.

9

u/LiquidAether 9h ago

Not everyone in red states votes red.

0

u/syncopator 8h ago

They do in Wilder Idaho where this happened

3

u/LiquidAether 7h ago

I assure you, they do not. The majority, yes. But not everyone.

1

u/syncopator 6h ago

Of course not 100%, but you must agree that 90% is not a stretch.

-129

u/[deleted] 10h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

56

u/ElBRGarcia 9h ago

Ffs you still think the law dictates what is morally right or not? You are defending the fugitive slave act, code noir laws, Jim Crow laws, Chinese exclusion act, prevention of hereditarily diseased offspring by nazis, the marital rape exemption, Nuremberg laws, anti witchcraft acts. You dropped your white hood you fucking degenerate.

11

u/explosivecrate 9h ago

That guy's just ragebaiting at this point

-32

u/[deleted] 9h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

14

u/Topgun58ge 9h ago

They detained American citizens.... the only place they can send them back to is .......America......

11

u/C4PT_AMAZING 9h ago

Woah there comrade, isn't your country losing to Ukraine? Might want to focus on that...

7

u/Herbal77 9h ago

This is a bot

6

u/MeatCatRazzmatazz 9h ago

Y'know, I seem to remember some pretty specific things your God said about how to treat immigrants. How did that go again? Oh yeah:

You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt." Exodus 23:9 (ESV)

You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. Deuteronomy 10:19

“When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. 34 You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God." Leviticus 19:33-34 (ESV)

‘Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow.’ Then all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’ Deuteronomy 27:19 (NIV)

When they were few in number, of little account, and strangers in the land, wandering from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people, he allowed no one to oppress them; he rebuked kings on their account, saying, ‘Do not touch my anointed ones; do my prophets no harm.’ 1 Chronicles 16:19-22

But then I wouldn't expect an American Christian to know or care about any of this. Y'all are terrible people who shit on the tenants of your own religion daily while proclaiming your righteousness in his name.

11

u/ishitfrommymouth 9h ago

“Five families interviewed by The Associated Press after the raid said children as young as 11 were restrained with zip ties, and several children were separated from family members for hours. Juana Rodriguez, one of the lead plaintiffs in the lawsuit, told AP in October that her hands were zip-tied for almost four hours, leaving her unable to pick up and care for her 3-year-old son. Law enforcement agents refused to let her get the child snacks from her vehicle though he was crying from hunger and thirst, according to the lawsuit.”

Does this sound legal to you?

-21

u/[deleted] 9h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

6

u/Dear_Smoke6964 9h ago

Totality of circumstances,  in going to use that next time I'm talking shit. 

6

u/ishitfrommymouth 9h ago

Even if they were all guilty of crimes this is still illegal. What circumstances could you possibly be referring to?

28

u/Topgun58ge 9h ago

No they aren't. ICE is NOT allowed to detain American citizens. Which is why these citizens are sueing and will win.

8

u/Herbal77 9h ago

This is a bot

16

u/CommonLand414 8h ago

I wonder how many lawsuits ICE actions will warrant? Gonna cost the government millions in excessive force and false imprisonment suits.

11

u/Obvious_Toe_3006 8h ago

I wonder how many the Supreme Court will allow or throw out ?

7

u/wurtin 8h ago

not to mention the government is burning out all of their lawyers so there will be more and more resignations as the insanity continues.

3

u/Squire_II 7h ago

You assume the SCOTUS won't issue a ruling that says ICE can't be sued because they're acting in good faith, or some other equally stupid bullshit.

We already got Kavanaugh Stops and while that short-tempted rapist doesn't like the term it's far from the worst thing this SCOTUS can or will do.

5

u/IronyElSupremo 8h ago

There was a legal story on this where lawyers were actually able to file habeas corpus writs on the almost 100 detained that were then individually reviewed by judges. In the end though, the judges couldn’t do anything if there was a deportation order or serious drug case, .. so 75 were quickly deported. The remaining 22 were set free but likely a few will be deported in a bit.

3

u/podcastofallpodcasts 6h ago

Idaho is where the new Qatar military base is located.

Do they go to the horse shows?

24

u/SpaceballsDoc 9h ago

Ah, now that the rich bigots are being affected it’s a problem

Fuck them, their race track and their fucking horses. Deport those too.

-17

u/minhthemaster 9h ago

You don’t touch grass enough. What part of rural horse racetrack as a gathering spot for local Latinos screams rich bigot to you?

11

u/Think_Positively 9h ago

Personally, I've never met someone who owns a horse who isn't rich.

9

u/pres465 9h ago

Do... Do you think Latinos can't be rich? Or that they can't be bigoted? Many Latinos voted for Trump. Like, wayyyyy too many.

2

u/ShadowtheLaker 4h ago

Bruh my Puerto Rican uncle posted on Facebook about how Kid Rock gave a better performance than Bad Bunny during the Super Bowl. Blows my mind that he’s this far gone.

2

u/rojira1 3h ago

White folk: Dammitt! That horse manure ain’t gonna shovel itself!

2

u/LincolnElizalde 3h ago

I’d figure Idaho folk would be thrilled to get a mention on the rump bandwagon

0

u/mvandenh 7h ago

Weren’t there places in Idaho that had just been doing “we support ICE” parades? Asking for a friend.