People first noticed the black helicopter in the sky.
asserted
People → notice → sky
Hundreds had gathered at the arena for a festival celebrating horse racing and Mexican culture.
asserted
Hundreds → gather → racing
As the military-style helicopter hovered above them, attendees from the rural, predominantly Latino community, began to get nervous.
asserted
attendees → hover → community
“Something is wrong,” Ivan Popoca, who attended the festival with his two kids, remembers thinking.
asserted
who → attend → kids
Within minutes, the festival grounds descended into chaos.
asserted
grounds → descend → chaos
Backed by armored trucks and snipers, more than 200 members of law enforcement stormed the grounds, some shot rubber bullets into the crowd and hurled flash-bang grenades into vehicles where people had fled to hide.
asserted
people → back → vehicles
Hundreds of people, including teens as young as 14, were detained and zip-tied.
asserted
Hundreds → include → 14
When it was all over, federal authorities had arrested 105 people for alleged immigration violations.
asserted
authorities → arrest → violations
The only warrant for the Wilder raid was secured by the FBI.
asserted
warrant → secure → FBI
Twelve months later, the Wilder raid is at the center of a court fight that could shape ICE operations around the country.
uncertain
that → shape → country
Advocates argue that in Idaho, ICE unlawfully piggybacked on an FBI operation, rather than securing their own warrant, as they would be expected to do on this type of operation.
asserted
they → argue → operation
A lawsuit brought forth by the ACLU argues that federal authorities violated the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures, by using an unrelated search warrant as a “cover to go fishing for immigration arrests.”
asserted
which → bring → arrests
“That is not what a criminal search warrant execution looks like.
asserted
execution → look → what
That is what a massively violent
immigration raid looks like,” says Jenn Rolnick Borchetta, an ACLU attorney who helped bring the resulting lawsuit.
asserted
who → look → lawsuit
Trump Administration officials insist that the arrests made that day were lawful.
asserted
arrests → insist → ?
“The facts haven’t changed:
asserted
facts → change → ?
ICE helped dismantle an illegal horse-racing, animal fighting, and a gambling enterprise operation out of a property known as La Cathedral Arena in Wilder, Idaho,” a DHS spokesperson told TIME.
asserted
spokesperson → help → TIME
Idaho Gov. Brad Little also defended the raid, saying in a statement at the time that it is “common practice” to detain others present while processing the scene.
asserted
it → defend → scene
For Wilder residents, the La Catedral raid remains an open wound that refuses to heal.
asserted
that → remain → residents
Popoca still recalls with anger how he and his 16-year-old son were zip-tied for hours for no apparent reason.
asserted
he → recall → reason
The ACLU and some of the families involved in the case released a documentary online on Monday called Wild Raids in which they discuss the raid’s impact, and why the legal challenge matters beyond people in Wilder.
asserted
challenge → involve → Wilder
“Some community members don't even want to think about this anymore,” says Leo Morales, the executive director of the ACLU Idaho.
asserted
Morales → want → ACLU
“But there are also folks who are also realizing how critical it is to be able to push back, to organize and to demand fairness and justice.”
asserted
it → be → fairness
Juana Rodriguez attended the festival with her three-year-old son.
asserted
Rodriguez → attend → son
Despite both of them being U.S. citizens, they were zip-tied and detained for hours following the raid.
asserted
they → tie → raid
Like many others who were detained, she described not being given access to food or water.
asserted
she → detain → food
“For the longest time, my son begged me for food.
asserted
son → beg → food
He begged me for water,” Rodriguez says.
asserted
Rodriguez → beg → water
She repeatedly asked the officers she could be untied so that she could feed and console her crying son, she says, but was rebuffed.
uncertain
she → ask → son
“I wish I could have done more in the moment, but I couldn't.”
uncertain
I → wish → moment
Detainees were eventually taken into a tent and questioned by ICE agents about their immigration status.
asserted
Detainees → take → status
Among the 105 people who were ultimately arrested, 75 are believed to have been deported to their home countries, according to local media, and 26 were released from ICE custody after their lawyers filed habeas corpus petitions.
uncertain
lawyers → arrest → petitions
The whereabouts of the remaining four people are unclear.
uncertain
whereabouts → remain → people
ICE did not provide an update on their case status.
asserted
ICE → provide → status
The day after the raid, the Wilder School District reported absent rates soared, with 20% of students absent, according to The Idaho Statesman.
uncertain
% → report → Statesman
A year later, Rodriguez says she is still scared to go to Latino cultural and other public events because of what happened at La Catedral.
asserted
what → say → Catedral
She also has nightmares about ICE officers taking her child away from her.
asserted
officers → have → her
My kids are from here,” she says.
asserted
she → say → ?
”Why should I have to feel that?
asserted
I → have → that
The ACLU filed a class-action complaint in February, charging that a variety of local, state and federal agencies violated the constitutional rights of those at the festival.
asserted
variety → file → festival
…and 16 more, not listed.
The Aporia
