Native Americans, who are truly the least likely to be immigrants, are afraid of deportation due to unprecedented ICE actions

When [the relevant event] flooded Minneapolis, Shane Mantz retrieved his Choctaw Nation citizenship card from a box on his dresser and slipped it into his wallet.

He said that some strangers misidentify the pest – control company manager as Latino, and he’s worried about getting involved in [the situation].

Similar to Mantz, numerous Native Americans are carrying tribal documents that verify their U.S. citizenship in case they’re stopped or questioned by federal immigration agents. That’s why dozens of Native nations are making it more convenient to obtain tribal IDs. They’re waiving fees, reducing the eligibility age (which ranges from 5 to 18 across the nation), and printing the cards more quickly.

David Wilkins, an expert on Native politics and governance at the University of Richmond, stated that it’s the first time tribal IDs have been widely utilized as proof of U.S. citizenship and protection against federal law enforcement.

“I don’t believe there’s anything comparable in history,” Wilkins said. “I find it extremely frustrating and disheartening.”

As Native Americans across the country hurry to secure documents that prove their right to live in the United States, many perceive a bitter irony.

“As the original inhabitants of this land, there’s no justification for Native Americans to have their citizenship questioned,” said Jaqueline De León, a senior staff attorney with the nonprofit Native American Rights Fund and a member of Isleta Pueblo.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security mentioned in an email that “our agents are appropriately trained to determine alienage and removability.”

“Under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, DHS law enforcement uses ‘reasonable suspicion’ to make arrests. The Supreme Court recently supported us on this matter,” the email read.

In September, the Supreme Court permitted ICE agents to consider a person’s apparent race and ethnicity when deciding whether to detain them.

Native identity in a new age of fear

Since the mid – to late 1800s, the U.S. government has maintained detailed genealogical records to estimate the proportion of “Indian blood” in Native Americans and determine their eligibility for healthcare, housing, education, and other services mandated by federal legal obligations. These records were also employed to assist federal assimilation efforts and undermine tribal sovereignty, communal lands, and identity.

Starting in the late 1960s, many tribal nations began issuing their own forms of identification. In the past two decades, tribal photo ID cards have become common and can be used to vote in tribal elections, prove U.S. work eligibility, and for domestic air travel.

Approximately 70% of Native Americans currently reside in urban areas, including tens of thousands in [the specific area], one of the largest urban Native populations in the country.

There, in early January, a top ICE official announced the “largest immigration operation ever.”

Masked, heavily armed agents traveling in convoys of unmarked SUVs became a common sight in some neighborhoods. According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, by this week, more than 3,400 people had been arrested. At least 2,000 ICE officers and 1,000 Border Patrol officers were on the ground.

Representatives from at least 10 tribes traveled hundreds of miles to Minneapolis (the birthplace of [the relevant thing]) to accept ID applications from their members there. Among them were the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Ojibwe of Wisconsin, the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate of South Dakota, and the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa of North Dakota.

Turtle Mountain citizen Faron Houle renewed his tribal ID card and got the first ones for his young – adult son and daughter.

“You just get nervous,” Houle said. “I think (ICE agents are) more or less racially profiling people, including me.”

Christine Yellow Bird, who manages the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation’s satellite office in Fargo, North Dakota, said that events in downtown coffee shops, hotel ballrooms, and at the Minneapolis American Indian Center helped urban tribal citizens connect and share resources.

Yellow Bird made four trips to Minneapolis in recent weeks, driving nearly 2,000 miles in her 2017 Chevy Tahoe to assist citizens in the Twin Cities who can’t make the long journey to their reservation.

Yellow Bird said she always keeps her tribal ID with her.

“I’m proud of who I am,” she said. “I never thought I’d have to carry it for my own safety.”

Some Native Americans say ICE is harassing them

Last year, Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren stated that several tribal citizens reported being stopped and detained by ICE officers in Arizona and New Mexico. He and other tribal leaders have advised citizens to carry tribal IDs with them at all times.

Last November, Elaine Miles, a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon and an actress known for her roles in “Northern Exposure” and “The Last of Us,” said she was stopped by ICE officers in Washington state who claimed that her tribal ID looked fake.

This week, the Oglala Sioux Tribe banned ICE from its reservation in southwestern South Dakota and northwestern Nebraska, one of the largest in the country.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North and South Dakota reported that a member was detained in Minnesota last weekend. And Peter Yazzie, a Navajo, said he was arrested and held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Phoenix for several hours last week.

Yazzie, a construction worker from nearby Chinle, Arizona, said he was sitting in his car at a gas station, getting ready for a day of work, when he saw ICE officers arrest some Latino men. The officers then turned their attention to him, pushed him to the ground, and searched his vehicle, he said.

He said he told them where to find his driver’s license, birth certificate, and a federal Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood. Yazzie said the car he was in is registered to his mother. The officers said the names didn’t match, and he was arrested, taken to a nearby detention center, and held for about four hours.

“It’s a horrible feeling. It makes you feel less than human. To know that people judge you based on your features and have such a low opinion of you,” he said.

DHS did not respond to questions about the arrest.

Mantz, a Choctaw Nation citizen, said he conducts pest – control operations in Minneapolis neighborhoods where ICE agents are active, and he won’t leave home without his tribal identification documents.

Securing them for his children is now a top priority.

“It gives me some peace of mind. But at the same time, why do we have to carry these documents?” Mantz said. “Who are you to ask us to prove who we are?”

___

Brewer reported from Oklahoma City and Peters from Edgewood, New Mexico.