WILDER, Idaho — A federal civil-rights lawsuit over a large law-enforcement raid at a rural Idaho horse racetrack is moving forward a year after the operation, the Associated Press reported on Friday, as the American Civil Liberties Union premiered a short film telling the story of two families who were detained that day.
Source: Associated Press via Casino.org
According to the lawsuit, more than 200 federal, state and local officers — including FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents — descended on La Catedral Arena in Wilder on October 19, 2025, during a family event with vendors and children's activities alongside the races. The lawsuit alleges that about 400 spectators who were not connected to the gambling investigation were detained, including U.S. citizens and children, and that officers used flash-bang grenades and rubber bullets. Those are allegations in a civil complaint; no court has ruled on them.
The FBI was executing a warrant over alleged illegal parimutuel betting, according to the reporting. Five people were ultimately arrested on gambling charges, including the track's owner, Ivan Tellez, who held a licence to run races but not to operate gambling, the lawsuit and reporting say.
The ACLU, the ACLU of Idaho and former U.S. Attorney Wendy Olson filed the class-action case, Rodriguez v. Porter, in February on behalf of three Latino families and a proposed class of everyone detained at the track who was not criminally arrested. The suit names ICE, FBI and Idaho State Police officials, as well as Canyon County and the cities of Caldwell and Nampa, and alleges the gambling warrant was used as cover for a racially targeted immigration dragnet — an allegation the defendants deny through their court filings.
In June, the local, state and federal defendants asked a federal judge to dismiss the case, arguing that officers were lawfully permitted to detain occupants while executing a search warrant and that the complaint does not identify specific unconstitutional conduct by the named officials. The ACLU answered on September 8. 'Warrants for five people accused of unlicensed gambling do not give police a blank check to round up hundreds of people,' Allison Frankel, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU's Criminal Law Reform Project, told KIVI, as reported by the Idaho Press.
Nampa Mayor Rick Hogaboam told AP the city would follow the legal process 'with integrity and professionalism.' The Department of Homeland Security has said the arrests were lawful and has described those ICE arrested as people with no right to be in the country; the ACLU says none of the bystanders was charged with a crime.
The ACLU's film, Wilder Raids, premiered at the one-year mark of the raid. It features Juana Rodriguez, a U.S. citizen and lead plaintiff, who says she was zip-tied and held for several hours without food or water while her 3-year-old son begged for both. 'For the longest time, my son begged me for food. He begged me for water … I wish I could have done more in the moment, but I couldn't,' Rodriguez said in the ACLU's account.
Source: ACLU
The lawsuit seeks class-action certification, a court declaration that constitutional protections were violated, an order preventing similar operations, and monetary damages to be determined at trial. No trial date has been reported.