In the wake of immigration raids, here and around the country, many families lost their main breadwinner and are struggling to stay afloat. Last October, the Federal Bureau of Investigations plus other law enforcement agencies, served a search warrant for an alleged gambling business at a horse track at La Catedral Arena.
Five suspects were ultimately arrested on federal charges tied to gambling, but the U.S. Department of Homeland Security detained 105 people tied to immigration status.
Witnesses say about 200 agents were part of the raid.
“What we have seen is that community absolutely is scared. We also have seen a subsequent uptick in ICE detentions,” said Rebecca De León, the Communications Director with the ACLU of Idaho.
The crackdowns have left the Latino community afraid and unsure of what might happen, should they leave their homes to run errands, go to work, take kids to school, or even celebrate special occasions with their families.
“They don't know if they can trust their neighbors, people who are just at the grocery store with them. You know, if they speak Spanish, they're afraid of what might happen,” she said.
In response, four nonprofits came together to create the Idaho Familias Assistance Fund to support families.
Jaqueline Vazquez is with the Idaho Organization of Resource Councils (IORC), and she handles office management and communications.
“We need to do the most impact in as little and short time as possible,” she said.
The IORC is one of the participating groups in the fund. Other collaborators include the ACLU of Idaho, PODER of Idaho, and Wrest Collective. They agreed the best way to provide for families was to join forces instead of pursuing individual efforts.
“The funds essentially were specifically for those affected by the raid and Wilder to help with rent, utilities, medical bills, transportation to and from work, and legal fees as well,” said Vasquez.
The need had also struck a cord with community members including local bands who organized a benefit concert for the fund to make sure families were getting what they needed.
“You know, keep lights on at home and bellies fat, and there's obvious legal fees and just, lots of unexpected expense that's now on the shoulders of these families,” said Jeremy Tomlinson, a member of the Rock & Roll band: Papas.
They took to the stage late last year with six other bands and filled the night with music, fun, and community.
“People seemed really excited to be able to give," said Tomlinson. "We had a bake sale, we had, you know, a silent auction where we had local businesses and artisans donate items and art and things like that.”
They spread the word and the performance included a silent auction, bake sale and other resources for struggling families.
“We had one of our friends in the music community that's a vintage clothing kinda hound, and he donated quite a bit of stuff that night, so we had people picking through vintage racks and making direct donations. I mean, it was just really a I call it a love fest,” he added.
The event raised more than 4,000 dollars, and so far the fund has helped about 45 families overall. Still, the emotional toll is still hard to shake.
“Even though the event in Wilder was pretty devastating and we're still dealing with the fear, and the anger that families have experienced since, we at the very least were able to say, contact us, we'll help you. And I think that that is something that's fairly new," said De León
She also shared that families aren’t just reaching out from the Treasure Valley for support and the fund has now been extended to families who’ve been affected by other raids around the state.
Their goal is for $100,000 and they’ve raised close to $57,000 so far.
