FEDERAL AGENTS RAIDED A RURAL Canyon County horse facility Sunday in a sprawling operation that left parts of Idaho’s immigrant community in turmoil and spurred calls for accountability from local advocacy groups.
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The FBI confirmed it executed a court-authorized search warrant at La Catedral Arena, a horse racing property off Peckham Road near Wilder, as part of an investigation into alleged illegal gambling operations. The sweep drew participation from multiple federal and local agencies — including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Department of Homeland Security, and Idaho State Police — according to officials and witnesses on the scene.
Advocates said the presence of ICE officers transformed what began as a gambling raid into an immigration enforcement action, with numerous workers and spectators detained. Estefania Mondragon, executive director of PODER of Idaho, said community members reported that several immigrants were separated from their families and taken into federal custody before public observers were cleared from the site.
According to a federal complaint filed by FBI Special Agent Jacob Sheridan, the property owner, 37-year-old Ivan Tellez of Wilder, operated horse races at La Catedral Arena without a betting license. Tellez and three others — Samuel Bejarano, 37, and Dayana Fajardo, 39, both of Nyssa, Oregon, and Alejandro Estrada, 56, of Buhl — were taken into custody on federal charges tied to illegal wagering. Their current immigration statuses have not been made public.
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The FBI said about 200 officers from ten agencies participated in the raid. ICE has not responded to requests for comment on how many individuals were detained for immigration purposes or whether deportation proceedings have begun.
The incident unfolded amid heightened immigration enforcement in Idaho under President Donald Trump’s renewed deportation directives. The U.S. Labor Department and agricultural groups have warned in recent weeks that stepped-up raids threaten to destabilize farm labor across the state, where nearly half the agricultural workforce is estimated to be foreign-born.
Local organizers in Wilder said they plan to hold a rally outside the Canyon County Courthouse demanding the release of detainees and more transparency about ICE’s role in the raid. “This was supposed to be about gambling,” Mondragon said. “What happened instead was an immigration roundup.”
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