{"id":22021,"date":"2025-02-05T01:31:28","date_gmt":"2025-02-05T08:31:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=22021"},"modified":"2025-02-03T16:32:36","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T23:32:36","slug":"ice-rumors-in-blaine-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/05\/ice-rumors-in-blaine-county\/","title":{"rendered":"ICE Rumors in Blaine County"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY MONICA CARRILLO<\/em><\/p>\n

Anumber of rumors on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Blaine County have increased concern amongst undocumented residents in the Wood River Valley.<\/p>\n

However, how many of those sightings have been true?<\/p>\n

Since President Donald Trump\u2019s first day in office, there have been multiple executive orders on immigration, including rolling back a 2011 policy that bans federal immigration enforcement agencies from making arrests in and near churches, schools, hospitals and other safe havens and an order to end birthright citizenship, causing worry for families.<\/p>\n

His presidency has come with rigorous enforcement of mass deportation policies, fueling rumors and social media reports of ICE activity nationwide, including in the Wood River Valley.<\/p>\n

Luis Campos, immigration attorney at The Alliance of Idaho, said he has been an immigration lawyer for 30 years, and was a leading attorney during the first Trump administration in 2016 to 2020. He said that Trump\u2019s second presidency has been \u201csignificantly worse,\u201d citing the numerous \u201cunconstitutional\u201d executive orders issued in the past two weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t necessarily had family or children separated, but the pure volume and unconstitutionality of these executive orders is crazy,\u201d Campos said.<\/p>\n

Since Jan. 20, 2025, he has heard numerous rumors of ICE raids throughout the Valley, including at gas stations and grocery stores, though confirming their presence can be challenging.<\/p>\n

\u201cClearly, Trump did not initiate the mere existence of ICE raids; they\u2019ve been around for a very long time, … but now there\u2019s a heightened sensitivity because the administration has clearly said they\u2019re maybe engaged in mass deportation,\u201d Campos said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe moment we see someone who appears to be an immigration officer at a gas station, people upload that information through social media, saying that there\u2019s a raid taking place and it\u2019s very hard to prove or disprove, unless you\u2019re actually interacting with that officer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because of this, he said it\u2019s important to know your rights and be prepared in any situation. He said The Alliance of Idaho has been leading \u201cKnow Your Rights\u201d workshops, all of which have had attendance of at least 100 people.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the first one that we did, we had, I think, 120 attendees, and not enough room, so people are clearly afraid,\u201d Campos said. \u201cPeople want to know \u2018What can we do? What can we expect? What rights do we have?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Campos said one of the key things to remember is that every person in the United States is entitled to due process, which includes foreign nationals, irrespective of their immigration status.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis means, for example, that individuals are entitled to a legal proceeding before they\u2019re deported and that they shouldn\u2019t be just picked up, put on a plane and sent abroad,\u201d Campos said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople also have the right to document potential abuses and interactions with ICE. That includes recording by video. That\u2019s a constitutional right \u2026 and here what we typically see is a family member or a friend recording any interactions. That puts ICE officers on greater guard in terms of ensuring that their conduct is legally correct.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additionally, he said individuals have a right to remain silent in any interaction with an ICE officer. He said oftentimes ICE are trained to speak in a \u201ccall-command voice,\u201d to get the person to engage and talk, but regardless, he said it\u2019s important to stay calm.<\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly you\u2019re not going to argue or much less fight with an officer, but you do have the right to vocalize the fact that you intend to exercise your right to not speak and not answer questions,\u201d Campos said.<\/p>\n

Another issue that has arisen is the rollback of a 2011 policy that prohibited federal immigration enforcement agencies from making arrests in or near churches, schools, hospitals, and other designated safe havens.<\/p>\n

Jim Foudy, superintendent of Blaine County School District, told the Wood River Weekly that their number one focus is the safety of all students and staff and people on their campuses and said that they have no information as to whether or not students are documented or undocumented.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll students who live here are entitled to a free appropriate public education, regardless of status,\u201d Foudy said.<\/p>\n

He said he\u2019s heard multiple rumors, including that there were ICE arrests outside of where the movie theater in Hailey is located. As far as he knows, Foudy said that was false information.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spoke with [City of Hailey Police] Chief Steve England, and he had spoken with Morgan Ballis, the sheriff for Blaine County, and\u00a0 <\/span>assured me that they have patrol officers up and down Main Street all the time; nobody saw anything, nobody heard anything,\u201d Foudy said. \u201cTypically, when there is an event like that, ICE would notify local law enforcement, and they did not receive any kind of notification.\u201d<\/p>\n

Foudy advises families to stay notified through the Blaine County Sheriff\u2019s Office\u2019s website and social media for updates.<\/p>\n

He also said he welcomes families to reach out to the school district with concerns.<\/p>\n

Campos emphasized the importance of staying vigilant and calm as executive orders continue to roll out, amid ongoing ICE raid rumors and strict immigration policies, noting that these measures will only continue to face legal challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of them are on very shaky legal ground, and some are clearly unconstitutional. So it\u2019s going to be a legal war zone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY MONICA CARRILLO Anumber of rumors on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Blaine County have increased concern amongst undocumented residents in the Wood River Valley. However, how many of those sightings have been true? Since President Donald Trump\u2019s first day in office, there have been multiple executive orders on immigration, including rolling back a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,72,168,18,26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22021","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-blaine-county","7":"category-community","8":"category-latinx","9":"category-news","10":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22021"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22022,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22021\/revisions\/22022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}