CANYON COUNTY, Idaho — A federal judge has ordered the release of 15 people detained during a large-scale immigration operation at an Idaho horse track last month, with eight individuals walking free from the Elmore County Jail on Wednesday night to waiting families.
The releases come more than a month after Immigration and Customs Enforcement took more than 100 people into custody during an Oct. 19 operation at La Catedral Horse Track in Wilder. Families gathered outside the jail as their loved ones were freed after weeks of separation.
Watch to learn more about the court order and what it took to reunite families:
The court order, filed in response to a habeas corpus petition issued on behalf of a non-citizen being held in the Elmore County Jail, states that the non-citizen in question was denied their constitutional right to due process.
The respondents in the case, which include ICE officials, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, failed to provide a legitimate reason for the non-citizen's detention.
The order goes on to state that the person in custody had no criminal record, posed no danger to the public, and was not deemed a flight risk. As such, the order mandated the non-citizen's release from custody.
Attorney Nikki Ramirez Smith, who witnessed the original operation, described harsh detention conditions for those held.
"There were periods they were held with multiple people in a cell, no blankets, no mattresses," Ramirez Smith said. "A lot of them were told that there was no hope, that they were not going to get out and they were not going to get a bond."
Read the entire US District Court for the District of Idaho Memorandum Decision and Order below
Ramirez Smith's law firm filed a habeas corpus petition requiring officials to provide legal justification for their clients' detention. She characterized the October operation as racial profiling and criticized the scope of the enforcement action.
"All of these families lined up and asked about nothing but their immigration status, I think [it] was a flagrant abuse of the legal process," Ramirez Smith said. "If there's probable cause to arrest someone, I don't think anyone's disputing that the police can go and arrest criminals and can arrest people who are breaking the law, but this wasn't that. This was a roundup of hundreds and hundreds of people, three-quarters of whom, by their own admission, were U.S. citizens who were zip-tied and not even questioned about a crime."
"You don't get to go in, zip tie everyone, or handcuff everyone and then investigate if any crimes occur," Ramirez Smith said. "That is not how our Constitution works."
Jacob Rourk, an immigration attorney with Ramirez Smith Law, said the legal strategy was clear from the beginning.
"As far as my initial impression when we got all these cases, we'd already seen this issue come up before," Rourk said. "We already knew that anybody who entered without inspection, that's a habeas case."
The attorney said locating detainees proved especially challenging, as some were transported out of state while others chose to self-deport. Ramirez Smith emphasized that due process was not followed.
"I can say this was the largest group of people who had absolutely no criminal history," Ramirez Smith said. "One of them made it out of the country before we even got to talk to him, and so there were certain things in the process that were very disturbing."
When asked about other detainees who did not have petitions filed on their behalf and whether they too could file for one, immigration attorney Neal Dougherty with Ramirez-Smith Law said many are no longer in Idaho.
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"They likely aren't in Elmore County anymore. They're likely not in the state anymore," Dougherty said. "They're probably in Nevada, where the majority of our detained removal proceedings happen, our immigration court cases happen. But yes, it is very likely that there are many more people who are still detained."
During the original operation, hundreds of families were separated as people were zip-tied, screened, and processed. The judge's ruling on Wednesday resulted in emotional reunions between detainees and their families.
"There were a lot of tears, yes, it's been a great couple of days," Ramirez Smith said.
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