Like so many farms, meat-packing plants and other industries that rely heavily on immigrant labor, horse racing is full of people who supported President Trump’s campaign in 2024 but did not believe he would target their businesses with the mass deportations he promised.
“They were convinced that he was only going after the bad guys,” said Will Velie, an immigration attorney who specializes in the horse racing industry. “But the definition of bad guys to a lot of people in the administration is anyone here without status.”
And now, perhaps predictably, there’s reason for horse racing to be nervous that it’s about to have a major problem on its hands.
An ICE raid Tuesday morning at Delta Downs in Vinton, Louisiana, where more than 80 backstretch workers were reportedly detained, should be a wake-up call for an industry that would simply not be able to function without a workforce of grooms and hotwalkers and stall cleaners who are, by some credible estimates, roughly 75% immigrants.
They come from places like Venezuela, Panama, Colombia and Mexico, working low-wage jobs but filling indispensable roles, caring round-the-clock for animals worth hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars.
