Native Americans forced to prove their US citizenship to ICE

When the Donald Trump administration launched its largest operation targeting migrants in the cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, last December, several members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe were detained. They were not criminals, undocumented residents, or even migrants. They are U.S. citizens who became victims of the racial profiling ICE agents have used in their raids, sanctioned by a controversial Supreme Court ruling that allowed officials to rely on facial features, the language spoken, or an English-speaking accent to choose their targets. In addition to the obvious consequences the practice has had in the Latino community, where thousands of citizens have been stopped during operations, Native Americans have also fallen victim to the subjective criteria used by officials.

“Because of ICE’s increased presence, we quickly saw that Native people were being affected by encounters with the agency, whether because they were exercising their constitutional right to free speech and protesting its presence, or because they were being racially profiled and suspected of being in the United States unlawfully,” says Beth Margaret Wright, senior attorney at The Native American Rights Fund (NARF), a nonprofit that provides legal defense for Native Americans and Indigenous tribes.

Members of other tribes, such as the Navajo Nation — the largest tribal nation by land area and enrolled population — have been arrested by ICE, prompting reactions from Indigenous leaders and clashes with the Department of Homeland Security. The Oglala Sioux Tribe invoked its sovereignty to ban ICE from entering the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, as other tribes have done, and Navajo Nation President Buu Van Nygren responded to the arrest of tribe member Peter Yazzie in Phoenix by asking the council to fund the issuance of tribal ID cards, which had been paused due to lack of money.

However, presenting those documents has not prevented people from being detained because ICE agents do not recognize them as proof of citizenship. “Under federal law, tribal IDs are considered federal identifications and must be accepted for federal purposes. The problem is that many Department of Homeland Security agents, including ICE officers, are not trained to understand what a tribal ID is or to recognize it as a valid form of federal identification,” Wright explains.

A bipartisan bill introduced in Congress last month seeks to fix that by training agents to recognize tribal IDs. The Respect Tribal IDs Act was introduced in mid-May by Representatives Teresa Leger Fernández (D–New Mexico) and Sharice Davids (D–Kansas) and Republican Don Bacon (R–Nebraska), along with Senator Ben Ray Luján (D–New Mexico).

The legislation arose after several high-profile incidents and complaints involving Native Americans whose tribal documentation was allegedly rejected or questioned during immigration raids, especially in border states and regions with large Native populations.

“Indigenous peoples in New Mexico and across the country have been questioned, harassed, and unjustly detained. This bill will require DHS agents to receive training to recognize tribal identifications and prevent improper detentions,” Leger Fernández said. “All law-enforcement officials must respect tribal governments and the documents they issue to their citizens. ICE and CBP agents must follow the law and respect tribal sovereignty,” she added.

There are more than 500 Indigenous tribes in the United States, and by law they have the right to issue their own identification cards. Many of their members also carry state-issued IDs or passports. By law, Americans are not required to carry identification on their person, but the immigration campaign launched by Trump at the start of his second term has led tribal leaders to advise members to carry ID and to launch campaigns to inform them of their rights and how to act during an encounter with ICE agents.

The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon, for example, issued a bulletin urging people to carry their tribal enrollment cards “at all times, especially in public.” A tribe member, actress Elaine Miles — known for her role as the unflappable Marilyn Whirlwind on the television series Northern Exposure — was briefly detained by ICE officers in November while walking to a bus stop in Redmond, Washington. Agents told her the ID appeared fake. According to Miles, her son also had an encounter with officials because of his physical features.

575 tribes

“These events are not mere operational errors. They reflect deep structural deficiencies in the agency’s training, inadequate regulatory guidance, and the fact that the current administration has not fully assumed its responsibilities arising from treaties and the trust relationship with the 575 federally recognized tribal nations,” said Patrice H. Kunesh, nonresident senior fellow at Brookings Metro and former commissioner of the Administration for Native Americans, in a recent article.

The Minneapolis metropolitan area is home to one of the oldest and largest urban Native American communities in the United States. In January, during Operation Metro Surge, which deployed 3,000 immigration officers to the city, Jose Roberto Ramirez, a 20-year-old citizen of the Red Lake Nation, was detained. Ramirez was dragged from his vehicle, handcuffed, and held for several hours despite his aunt presenting his birth certificate. Video showing the officers’ aggressiveness during the arrest spread on social media.

Sources in Indigenous communities have expressed hope that, under Markwayne Mullin’s leadership, the Department of Homeland Security will change course and improve relations. The new secretary, who replaced Kristi Noem at the end of March, is a member of the Cherokee Nation. “Secretary Mullin carries the same tribal citizenship card that ICE agents have dismissed during field encounters with Natives across the country and therefore has both a political and personal responsibility to honor and protect that privilege,” Kunesh emphasized.

Mullin has already confirmed he intends to carry out the task Trump assigned him to conduct the largest deportation in history. ICE did not respond to this newspaper’s request as to whether it has taken steps to prevent detentions of Native citizens.

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