CANYON COUNTY, Idaho — The way state and federal authorities stormed into a horse track in Wilder on Sunday isn't sitting well with hundreds of people who say they were detained in zip tie handcuffs and separated from their families.
Ashley Palomares and Anabel Romero, both U.S. Citizens, were two such bystanders whose hands were zip-tied during the raid. They both spoke exclusively to Idaho News 6 about their experience that day, which included traumatic moments watching families be separated and describing abuse at the hands of unidentified law enforcement officials.
WATCH TO HEAR MORE OF ASHLEY PALOMARES' ACCOUNT:
"I started noticing a helicopter off in the distance by the fields, thinking it was an air ambulance or somebody," recalled Ashley Palomares. "And then the next thing you know, you just hear boom, and see everybody take off."
For Palomares, it all started as a typical Sunday with friends at the track to watch horse races. Then, everything changed in an instant.
"And when I had turned around, that's when I saw military vehicles approaching us and then people in military uniforms with, I don't know if they were pellet guns or whatever they were shooting— they were holding [them] up."
Seeing the chaos, she grabbed her phone and started livestreaming on Facebook— to show everyone what was happening, but most importantly, to warn others.
"They kind of like herded us as cattle, like inside the track, and then they're telling us, 'Keep going, keep going, keep going,' all the way till the track ends. And everybody's like, 'OK, now what?' And they start zip-tying people."
Still recording and demanding answers, she says things took an even darker turn when, to her shock, she found herself being shoved to the ground by law enforcement officials.
"Next thing you know, I have four or five different agents like on me trying to get a hold of me. "They threw me around, they put their knee on my shoulder and my back and my legs, zip-tied me, and threw me that way."
For hours, she explained, she saw families being separated into lines—but what hit her the hardest was seeing little ones begging to be held by their parents.
"There was one that asked, 'Mom, where's Grandpa? Where's Grandpa?' Or, 'I'm hungry, like I need to go to [the] bathroom. Can we leave?' Their parents were like, 'No, like don't worry, like we'll leave in a second. Like you just have to hang on.'"
RELATED | Caldwell Police Chief speaks exclusively about what went down at the Wilder race track raid
Ashley says she was eventually untied and escorted back to her car, where she later saw others being shackled in chains and loaded into vans.
"My wrist still has light scarring from the zip ties. My shoulder was sore, my back was sore. Luckily, there wasn't any significant bruising."
CLICK HERE TO HEAR ANABEL ROMERO RECALL THE MOMENT SHE AND HER CHILDREN WERE SEPARATED:
Anabel Romero—the mother of children who were seen reuniting after being separated during the raid— says the experience has left her family rattled.
According to Romero, an agent told her something during the ordeal that she will never forget: "I will blow your f*****g head off."
"Why did they choose that place to arrest people? They claimed [they] were doing something illegal? Not everyone there was breaking the law," said Romero of the horse racing event.
Romero walked us through the moments she and her young children were separated— and later reunited.
"It honestly broke my heart to see my kids running towards my sister-in-law and my sister," said Romero. "My kids didn't deserve to go through that at all."
"Once I heard screaming and running, I panicked a little bit. I was like, 'What do I do?' I honestly just took off running with the people," recalled Romero. "I had my kids in the truck, and I called my daughter—'Don't get out. Keep the kids in there.'"
She says people sprinted toward the horse stalls to hide, not knowing what was coming next—federal agents shouting, scattering the crowd, and tearing families apart.
In the video above, you can hear Anabel exchange tense words with officers on the scene. "They just told me to shut up and shoved me to the ground. I got kicked on the side, they pulled my shoulder all the way back, and shoved my face into the horse shavings. I couldn't really breathe. They zip-tied me. I kept telling them—I couldn't breathe."
That's when reality hit: her 6-year-old son with autism, as well as her 8-year-old and 14-year-old daughters, were still inside their truck—unaware of what was happening after she left them there to finish their meals.
"I was screaming for my kids and everything, and I saw my kids and my two little ones ran up and were crying, and they're like, 'Mom, we couldn't find you.' They took us out of the truck with a gun, so they took my kids out at gunpoint out of the truck, and my 14-year-old daughter was with them, and they actually dragged her out of the truck."
Anabel says that while she and her daughter were zip-tied, her other children walked around offering water to others, while she says agents focused on asking for documentation instead of criminal history.
Born and raised in Idaho—just like her kids—Anabel says after hours of interrogation, her children were released. "It just breaks my heart that they had no sympathy towards kids, no sympathy, and all these people, they didn't care if it was criminals, all they wanted was the people that were illegal, that's all they wanted, they didn't care."
While Anabel says her family is now safe, they are navigating how to help her children with the trauma and how to face their fears and move forward.
This story was initially reported by a journalist and has been, in part, converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
