OPINION: Fear at every door: How ICE raids are undermining civil liberties 

Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids are no longer just about enforcing immigration law — they are about fear. Across the country and Idaho, ICE operations are increasingly targeting people with no violent criminal history, separating families and making entire communities afraid to leave their homes, go to work or even call the police. This is not public safety. This is state-sanctioned intimidation. 

In Idaho, the dangers of these tactics became clear during a massive federal raid at a horse racing track in Wilder in 2023. According to Idaho News 6, hundreds of people, including children, were detained during the operation, despite most not being charged with any crimes. Families were zip-tied, questioned and held in holding areas without clear explanations. This wasn’t about violent offenders — it was about immigration status, and nothing more. 

Even more alarming, a federal judge later ordered the release of several detainees from that raid, stating that their detention violated due process protections (Idaho News 6). When a court has to step in and say people’s constitutional rights are violated, that should be a wake-up call. Instead, ICE raids have continued nationwide. 

In Moscow and across North Idaho, immigration advocates say fear of ICE has driven undocumented residents away from hospitals, schools and even police stations. While rumors of ICE activity sometimes spread faster than reality, the fact that people believe these rumors shows how deeply fear has taken root. As KIVI-TV reported, the Blaine County Sheriff’s Office had to publicly deny ICE raid rumors because residents were panicking and afraid to leave their homes. When law enforcement must reassure people that they are not about to be detained by federal agents, something has gone terribly wrong. 

Even more disturbing are cases of mistaken identity. According to Newsweek, U.S. citizens and legal residents have been detained or questioned by ICE during raids simply because they “matched a description” or were in the wrong place at the wrong time. In a country built on due process and constitutional protections, the idea that citizenship cannot protect someone from detention should terrify all of us, not just immigrants. 

Civil liberties groups say ICE has also repeatedly violated the Fourth Amendment by entering homes without judicial warrants. The American Civil Liberties Union has documented multiple cases in which agents entered private residences without consent or legal authority, leading to illegal arrests and intimidation of families. A federal judge in Minnesota even ruled that ICE violated the constitution by entering a home without a warrant, reinforcing what advocates have said for years: these raids do not just bend the law, they break it. 

Supporters of ICE argue that immigration laws must be enforced. That may be true. But enforcement that tramples civil liberties, terrorizes families and detains innocent people is not law and order; it is abuse of power. When parents are taken in front of their children. When workers disappear from jobs overnight. When people avoid hospitals because they fear deportation more than illness. That is not justice. That is cruelty. 

In Moscow, Idaho, and across the country, immigrant communities are not just afraid of deportation, they are afraid of existing. That fear doesn’t stay contained. It spills into classrooms, workplaces, churches and neighborhoods. It weakens public trust, discourages cooperation with law enforcement and undermines the very idea that everyone deserves basic rights and dignity. 

This is no longer just an immigration issue. It is a civil rights issue. 

ICE raids, as they currently operate, are violating constitutional protections, destabilizing families and turning everyday life into something dangerous for thousands of people. If the government can strip away rights from one group of people without consequence, it becomes easier to strip them from others. 

The question is no longer whether ICE is enforcing immigration law. The question is whether the United States is still committed to enforcing the constitution. 

AJ Pearman can be reached at [email protected].