CANYON COUNTY, Idaho — More than a week after a chaotic FBI operation in Wilder separated over 100 families, mental health experts are warning about the long-term psychological impact on those who witnessed the raid — particularly children.
Click here to learn how the Wilder operation will ripple through generations in our community:
The trauma from the federal operation at a horse track could affect families for generations, according to local counselors who are already seeing signs of distress in the community.
"PTSD is sometimes a lifelong thing to process," said Erica Clemens, a licensed clinical social worker with New Hope Counseling.
Federal agents swarmed the Wilder location, separating families and taking more than 100 people into ICE custody. Among those impacted were teenagers and young children who watched the operation unfold.
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"They were like mom we couldn't find you they took us out of a truck with a gun," said Anabel Romero, a community member.
"He will be like the police, the police, where, where grandpa like say like the police who took his grandpa," said Juana Rodriguez, another community member.
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"My child was a 14-year-old daughter was one of the children cuffed for about half an hour," said John Carter, a community member and Catedral Wilder Security employee.
Clemens said the chaos can lead to long-term mental health impacts, affecting things like comfort around crowds and public spaces. She acknowledged the difficulty of rebuilding trust in law enforcement after such experiences.
"With situations like that, we can't just reassure them that these are things that won't happen in the world... it's broken, our world is broken," Clemens said.
She explained that in the Hispanic community, where trust doesn't come easily, asking for help can be particularly challenging. However, warning signs are already emerging in affected families.
"Oftentimes, families might not notice things at first, right, once they try and go home and get to their normalization," Clemens said. "And then they'll realize maybe their kids aren't sleeping at night, maybe they're unable to start trusting relatives that come in the home or people that are at school, oftentimes new faces that get introduced suddenly are no longer safe to even children, teens, even the adults."
After clarification, the FBI said no young children were detained during the raid. However, several witnesses reported seeing teenagers in zip ties, and one parent said her toddler saw her restrained.
"Can you please untie me my son needs me right now," Rodriguez said.
Clemens warned that these traumatic memories will stay with witnesses for years to come.
"The memories, it's kind of like a scar, you know, when you fall down, you get scraped, you know, sure, you might not be bleeding a month or two later, but you still see a scar," Clemens said. "So, that will still be there. Sometimes there might be flashbacks that might be coming back, and that's kind of one of the criteria for PTSD is when we're having these intrusive thoughts or these flashbacks that are uncontrollable. And so, sometimes those linger.
RESOURCES: NEW HOPE COUNSELING
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