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BOISE, Idaho — A federal judge has mandated the release of 16 individuals who were detained by immigration officials during a recent FBI-led operation at a rural Idaho racetrack.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill determined that holding these migrants without bond infringed upon their due process rights. He ordered their release as they await the outcomes of their immigration proceedings. Judge Winmill highlighted that many have resided in the United States for decades without any criminal records. Court documents also reveal that some are married to U.S. citizens or have children who are American citizens.
The Department of Justice stated, “The Trump administration is dedicated to reinstating the rule of law and applying common sense to our immigration system. We will persist in our efforts to arrest, detain, and remove individuals who have no legal right to be in this country.”
The raid, conducted on October 19 at a privately owned outdoor track in Wilder, was part of an FBI investigation into alleged illegal gambling activities. Over 200 officers from at least 14 different agencies, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol, participated in the operation, temporarily detaining about 400 people, many of whom were U.S. citizens.
Eyewitnesses reported aggressive methods during the raid, such as the use of zip ties on children and the separation of young kids from their parents for extended periods. Kristi Noem, Secretary of Homeland Security, whose department oversees Border Patrol and ICE, refuted claims that children were zip-tied. Initially, FBI spokesperson Sandra Barker stated no restraints or rubber bullets were used on children but later clarified that the statement referred specifically to “young children.”
The raid resulted in only a handful of gambling-related arrests, while 105 people were arrested on suspicion of immigration violations. Many of them signed voluntary agreements to leave the country before they were able to talk to immigration lawyers, said Nikki Ramirez-Smith, an immigration attorney whose firm is representing 15 of the people released this week.
Just 18 people detained in the raid have sought their release in the federal courts in Idaho, according to online court records. One of them had that request initially dismissed after a judge found that they did not include enough detail in their court filing, but the judge also gave them 30 days to try again. Another person is now pursuing release through a different federal court after they were transferred to a detention facility in a different state.
The federal judge in Idaho said that nearly all of his colleagues who have faced similar requests from immigration detainees have come to the same conclusion: That non-citizens who are detained while already present in the United States are entitled to due process rights.
“Treating the detention of noncitizens stopped at or near the border differently from noncitizens who reside within the country is not an anomaly. Instead, it reflects the long-recognized distinction in our immigration laws and the Constitution that due process protections apply to noncitizens residing within the country but not those stopped at or near the border,” Winmill wrote.
Ramirez-Smith said Winmill’s release orders do “a great job of putting into perspective what the issues are.”
“They’ll just stay home with their families, and we’ll file the applications for relief in immigration court, and they’ll get a court hearing. Those trial dates will probably be years out,” she said, because of a hefty backlog of more than 3 million cases in immigration courts.
Still, President Donald Trump has taken steps to reduce the backlog, instructing judges during his first term to deny entire categories of asylum claims such as for victims of gang or domestic violence.
During his current term, the Trump administration has fired dozens of immigration judges, and authorized about 600 military lawyers to work as temporary immigration judges. The administration has also frequently turned what would normally be routine immigration hearings into deportation traps, with government lawyers quickly dismissing asylum cases so the migrants who sought asylum can be immediately arrested in the courthouse halls.