CALDWELL — About 100 Idaho residents gathered outside the Canyon County Administration Building on Monday, expressing fear and solidarity after an immigrant raid at a horse track in Wilder.

PODER of Idaho, a group dedicated to advocacy for Idaho’s undocumented and Latinx community, hosted the midday protest that saw about 100 in attendance. It was a swift response to an ICE raid the previous day at La Catedral Arena horse track in Wilder.

While this raid was preceded by an FBI warrant execution into alleged illegal gambling, the immigration enforcement action resulted in families being separated and loved ones being left uncertain of their fate.

Estefania Mondragon, who led chants at the protest, sought to make clear that her objections were not in relation to the FBI’s investigation and warrant execution regarding illegal gambling at the horse track.

“They should have been arrested,” Mondragon said of the four individuals named as part of the FBI’s investigation. “(There) should have not been this ridiculous response of taking families — that was ridiculous, that was uncalled for, unnecessary.”

Those who attended the rally consistently characterized the force used by law enforcement officials Sunday as being over-the-top. Jessie, who declined to give her last name, said she was particularly concerned about reports that children had been zip-tied as part of the detainments, describing the measure as being done to foment fear, rather than fulfill a law enforcement purpose.

The families at the racetrack on Sunday were simply trying to enjoy their Sunday afternoon — to have it end in families being separated and left unaware about the welfare of their loved ones was “heartbreaking,” Jessie said.

“Why are we ganging up on our own people — I don’t understand,” Jessie said. “I’m just here to show support for those families. Like, as a Latina, this is scary just to see what could happen to people that even are citizens — it’s like you’re just being profiled.”

Speaking to the cancellation of the the FBI’s press conference that was originally slated to take place just after the start of the PODER of Idaho protest, Jessie said this brought an appearance that “there’s something sketchy going on,” rather than a legitimate law enforcement operation.

“They’re not standing on what they’re saying they stand for,” Jessie said. “If you’re gonna have a press conference, why can’t we know the information?”

Ruby Mendez-Mota, co-executive director of PODER of Idaho, spoke at a subsequent American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)-led press conference regarding the onset of the raid.

Mendez-Mota described a scene where mothers were holding photos, birth certificates, and IDs in the hopes that they could get news of the status of their family members while children were left “asking questions no child should have to ask.”

“In that moment, families were torn apart,” Mendez-Mota said. “I saw the confusion in people’s faces, the panic, the heartbreak. Loved ones detained without warning, without explanation, fathers, mothers, sons, our little ones taken away. No notice, no phone calls allowed, no dignity.”

Nikki Ramirez-Smith, a founder of Nampa-based immigration law firm Ramirez-Smith Law, also spoke at the ACLU press conference. She said that while it “does appear” that all of the children who were detained have since been released, she said there are children who are still working to be reunited with their parents, bringing a lasting, traumatic impact that will extend beyond Sunday’s events.

“I think there is going to be a lot of children in this community that are severely disturbed and upset about what happened,” Ramirez-Smith said, “and I think the community needs to rally around those kids, because this was a family event.”

Jacky Vazquez, a member of the Idaho Organization of Resource Councils (IORC), spoke to what she viewed as a shift in the government’s philosophy surrounding immigration. At one endpoint, she highlighted the Immigration Reform and Control Act that was enacted in 1986 under the administration of President Ronald Reagan. The act, which granted legal status to certain undocumented immigrants who had been in the country prior to 1982, ended up giving people like her father a “chance at stability.”

“It wasn’t a guarantee, but it was an opportunity and for many families like mine, that word opportunity meant everything,” Vazquez said. “For nearly 40 years since the act passed, we’ve been told that America is the land of opportunity. We have held onto that belief even as the pathway to citizenship has grown narrower and more uncertain.”

The raid in Wilder represented a clear departure from the philosophy that allowed her father, and others like him, to make a live for themselves in the United States, Vazquez said.

“We witnessed the opposite of opportunity, liberty and justice for all hard working men and women who simply want to spend their Sunday with family to rest and enjoy a horse race, were forcefully detained. … Families were separated. Children were left terrified,” Vazquez said.

What took place Sunday was not simply an incident, Vazquez said, it was a “refection of a broken system that continues to dehumanize the very people who sustain our communities.”

The PODER of Idaho rally and ACLU of Idaho press conference both took place without incident, but brought about a half dozen counter protestors looking to voice their support for the Trump administration, including by broadcasting excerpts of his speeches and, at one point, the Village People’s “YMCA.”

Dawson Murray, one of the individuals who took part in this counterprotest, said he viewed the detainments as being akin to someone being stopped by an officer without a driver’s license. If you get pulled over by a police officer without a license, Murray said, they’re not just going to let you go.

While he said it was normal for a human to be fearful in the face of a mass detainment action as was the case in Wilder, there has to be an understanding that these actions are taken to maintain the safety of the officers involved.

”These officers are putting their lives at risk,” Murray said. “... so of course they need to make sure that they control the situation as much as possible.”