BOISE, Idaho — The American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho and SOMOS held a rally Sunday called "A March for Immigrant Justice" in an effort to shine a light on the one-year anniversary of the Wilder raid.
"We will not stand for that kind of treatment and it will not go unpunished," said Rebecca De Leon of the ACLU. "We are here to remind folks that we will never forget what happened in Wilder and we will not allow it to happen again."
WATCH: Check out the video to see the march and the rally
A year ago, law enforcement raided the horse track in Wilder using warrants obtained for a federal gambling investigation, which ultimately resulted in five people being charged in the investigation.
Law enforcement also detained around 400 people in the raid, including children. Of those people, 105 were arrested for being undocumented and deported.
"I feel a lot of sadness when I think about how regular working people, neighbors and families were just rounded up and corralled," said Jonathan Castelan Medina, who came out to protest. "Not only were their rights violated, but they were dehumanized."
Median was among one of a couple hundred people who came out for the rally that included a march from Ann Morrison Park to the Idaho State Capitol. The demonstrators chanted on their way to the statehouse.
"I was thinking about how many people would be here if there weren’t so many people afraid to leave their homes," said Lydia Reissmann, another demonstrator. "I feel so much despair, but I also feel connected with my community."
The ACLU of Idaho has filed civil rights lawsuits on behalf of the American citizens who were detained in the raid, and De Leon told me she's grateful for all the people that came out to stand in solidarity with the Latino community.
"A lot of Latinos still hold a lot of fear and that is completely understandable because of what happened in Wilder," said De Leon. "We have been shown we will be treated differently, we will be treated as lesser than and our rights do not matter as much."
Our Victoria Rodriguez has been following the Wilder Raid and she has talked with one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. On Monday, she will have a story on the impact on the families affected by the raid one year later.
