‘Very scary’: Protesters criticize raid in Idaho where children were detained
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Wilder racetrack raid
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A tear cut down Jeanette Orozco’s cheek as she recounted the anxious ordeal waiting for her father outside a Wilder racetrack on Sunday, after roughly 200 law enforcement personnel detained people as part of an FBI gambling investigation.
Orozco, speaking Monday at a press conference and protest outside the Canyon County Administration Building — where authorities canceled a media update about the raid — said she got a phone call at around 1 p.m. Sunday from her father.
“My dad is somebody who I love very much, and to not know what’s going on,” Orozco said, as dozens of protesters stood around her. “I’ve never heard my dad ever be that nervous in my life. So hearing that was very painful, very scary. I’m angry, I’m mad, I’m heartbroken and I’m sad.”
The track’s owner had a conditional use permit to hold horse races at La Catedral Arena, but he didn’t have a license to allow parimutuel betting, according to an FBI criminal complaint. Four people were arrested in connection with the alleged illegal gambling operation as federal and local officers from 10 agencies conducted the raid.
Others, including children, were detained and zip-tied, according to previous Idaho Statesman reporting. Agents sent released people into a nearby field. At one point, a crowd of people surged forward, and agents fired rubber bullets near them.
It’s not typical to conduct a raid at a place where people are just attending a fun activity, at least not in Idaho, said J.J. Despain, managing attorney for Wilner & O’Reilly’s Boise law office. Raids typically occur at workplaces where people are not authorized to work, he said.
“This is kind of a new level,” Despain told the Statesman by phone. “… This does feel like something different for Idaho.”
Despain said he was speaking Monday with people who were affected, some of whom wanted to know how to deliver medication to family members. He said there are Idahoans still trying to figure out where family members are.
Orozco and her father were eventually reunited, but it’s not clear that others were so lucky. Exactly how many people were detained or might still be in custody is unknown, although all of the children have been released, the American Civil Liberties Union and attorney Nikki Ramirez-Smith told the Statesman on Sunday.
Ramirez-Smith, a Nampa-based immigration lawyer, said at the press conference that people were being processed in Boise and sent to the Elmore County Jail, which is in Mountain Home.
“We are still evaluating all of the rights violations,” Ramirez-Smith said. “We are getting information that people were very aggressively dealt with and they were refused an attorney, because I was not let in to talk to my clients.”
The FBI scheduled a press conference for Monday afternoon with Robert Bohls, special agent in charge, and Canyon County Sheriff Kieran Donahue, who was at the raid. About an hour beforehand, the FBI canceled that event, saying in an email that authorities had nothing more to add than what was in the federal criminal complaint.
“ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) division was present as part of the broader federal team to process individuals who were found to have potential immigration violations during the course of the investigation,” spokesperson Sandra Barker said in an email. “Their presence was limited to that specific federal responsibility and was separate from the criminal gambling investigation being led by the FBI.”
A handful of counterprotesters stood across the street from Monday’s press conference and protest, waving American flags and at one point playing a recorded speech from President Donald Trump.
Keegan Keppner, from Boise, said he was there to support ICE.
“It does stink that people are getting pulled, but they need to come in the right way,” Keppner said. “It does suck that the innocent get detained, but they were a quick release as soon as they figured out. That’s the good part about that.”
Dania Tolentino, who came to the protest from Boise, criticized the tactics and force that law enforcement used.
“They heard that it was a Latino event,” Tolentino said. “That was enough for them.”
This story was originally published October 20, 2025 at 4:53 PM.
CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Jeanette Orozco’s name.
