Kristi Noem addressing members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on January 17, 2025

The Idaho Statesman reports the Canyon County Sheriff’s Office and Caldwell Police Department released a joint statement Wednesday contradicting ICE claims of orchestrating a Sunday raid that was not an ICE-led operation, despite what the Department of Homeland Security indicated.

“To be clear, this was not an ICE-led enforcement action,” said Sheriff Kieran Donahue and Police Chief Rex Ingram. “The statement released by DHS yesterday claiming responsibility for dismantling a criminal organization was completely false and a serious misrepresentation of the facts.”

Homeland Security claimed in a Tuesday media statement that “ICE dismantled an illegal horse-racing, animal fighting, and a gambling enterprise operation” and that “as part of the operation ICE law enforcement officers arrested 105 illegal aliens,” according to the Statesman.

But the raid at La Catedral Arena, which concluded with the arrest of four people for alleged illegal gambling, according to the Statesman, was in fact led by the FBI’s Treasure Valley Metro Violent Crime and Gang Task Force. The Statesman added that the FBI has said several times that it was the lead agency and that ICE was there “as part of the broader federal team to process individuals who were found to have potential immigration violations.”

In their joint statement, Donahue and Ingram criticized Homeland Security for putting out a claim that was “deeply misleading to the public.”

The two said they normally limit comments on “active federal investigations,” but felt it was “important to address the confusion caused by recent public statements from the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).”

Additionally, they pointed out that follow-up questions about the raid from members of the media or friends and family members involved should go to the FBI’s Salt Lake City Field Office, not Homeland Security.

“Our agencies remain committed to supporting the rule of law within our jurisdictions, regardless of whether they are state, local, or federal operations,” they said.

Read the Idaho Statesman report at this link.