Are America’s horse racing tracks on the radar of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)? In the light of the controversial agency’s recent raid on the Delta Downs Racetrack, Hotel and Casino in Calcasieu Parish, and arrest of more than 80 employees, that may well be the case.
According to a recent posting by a Louisiana Fox affiliate, the Delta Downs raid was based on intelligence the agency received suggesting that “unauthorized persons” were working in the track’s stables. Masked ICE agents then swooped down on the track arresting 80 people suspected of being in the US illegally, while acknowledging that only two of them had criminal records of any kind.
Raids like this sap industries of skilled workers who are difficult to impossible to replace and the horse racing business is no exception. For this exact reason, the raid did not go over well with representatives of the horse racing industry. Peter Ecabert, general counsel for the National Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, which represents 29,000 thoroughbred racehorse owners and trainers, including at Delta Downs commented on the raid saying, “To come in and take that many workers away and leave the horse racing operation stranded and without workers is unacceptable,” he said.
Ecabert added a plea that suggests his group didn’t really understand the current administration’s vitriolic campaign against both undocumented workers, and those who are working within the system to retain a legal status. “If they (ICE) were willing to come in and try and work with us, we are willing to make sure things are done in an orderly way. But what they have done here leaves everyone in a bad situation,” he added.
It’s unclear what impact losing 80 employees will have on Delta Downs moving forward, but replacing that many skilled track workers would seem to be a difficult to impossible task.