NETT LAKE – Bois Forte Band members are being encouraged to carry their tribal IDs or other identity documents in the future, in hopes of protecting themselves from sweeps by immigration officials. Bois Forte officials put out that message in a notification to band members last week addressing President Donald Trump’s attempted freeze on federal grants and loans, an attempt that is currently stayed by a federal judge.
But funding cuts and freezes are only some of the concerns tribal members have in the wake of Trump’s inauguration. Across the country, Native Americans have been harassed by immigration officials seeking to round up residents without proper documentation.
“Band members are encouraged to carry your Tribal Identification Card or Certificate of Indian Blood Certification on you at all times,” the notice from the Bois Forte tribal council said.
The statement echoes guidance issued by numerous Native tribes and advocacy organizations after reports surfaced last week of Native Americans in Arizona and New Mexico being detained for questioning by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
On Monday, Jan. 27, a CNN story reported that “at least 15 Indigenous people in Arizona and New Mexico” had reported being questioned or detained by federal law enforcement officers and asked to provide proof of citizenship during immigration raids, according to Navajo Nation officials.
“My office has received multiple reports from Navajo citizens that they have had negative, and sometimes traumatizing, experiences with federal agents targeting undocumented immigrants in the Southwest,” Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren said in a press release.
However, subsequently, the advocacy group Operation Rainbow Bridge reported a communication from Nygren’s office on its website that they had not been able to confirm or substantiate any of the reports they received.
Arizona state senator Theresa Hatathlie said that she had received a call about eight Navajo citizens who were detained for hours with no cell phones or ability to contact their families or tribes, according to a report in the Navajo-Hopi Observer.
A Navajo woman described for Searchlight New Mexico an ICE raid on her workplace in Scottsdale, Ariz.
“They were speaking in Spanish, and when an agent came to me, I said, ‘I don’t understand what you’re saying,’” the woman said. “Then he changed his tone. He was like, ‘I’m sorry, I thought you were Hispanic.’ I said, ‘No, I’m Native American.’ He asked me for identification. I said that I had my identification on my phone, and he told me to go ahead and take it out. I showed him my Certificate of Indian Blood and he let me go.”
Sparked by a confirmed incident in New Mexico where a Mescalero Apache member was stopped by an ICE agent and questioned about their citizenship, the nine-member New Mexico congressional delegation sent a letter to President Trump and Dept. of Homeland Security Secretary Krisi Noem decrying the action.
“We have heard several concerning reports of (ICE) agents stopping, detaining, and harassing members of Tribal Nations,” the letter said. “Native American Tribal members are United States citizens. Stopping people because of what they look like – with dark skin, Asian, Latino, or Native American characteristics is never acceptable. ICE’s dangerous behavior of harassing American citizens, seemingly only due to the way they look, is unconstitutional and un-American. Your administration’s actions and policies are quickly spreading fear in communities that have existed since time immemorial. It is unconscionable to question their citizenship and cause them to live in fear.
Carrying tribal membership information would seem to be prudent advice for Bois Forte and members of other Minnesota tribes who live and work in the Twin Cities area, as ICE activity appears to have been concentrated in metro areas initially. Like other ICE field offices, the ICE office in St. Paul has been given a goal of 75 arrests per day. It is not known how many people the St. Paul office has taken into custody since the start of increased enforcement efforts, although it was reported that three child sex offenders, two from Mexico and one from Honduras, were arrested last week.
Birthright citizenship
Of additional concern to many tribal leaders across the country was the discovery that the Trump administration was citing laws dating back to the 1860s to legally justify its bid to eliminate birthright citizenship in the U.S.
Administration attorneys argued in federal court recently that Indians were not considered citizens when the 14th Amendment codifying birthright citizenship was enacted, and that an 1884 Supreme Court case found that they were not entitled to birthright citizenship.
John Elk was a Ho Chunk tribe member who renounced his tribal membership to claim birthright citizenship in order to vote, but his claim was rejected by the court, which ruled that being born in the jurisdiction of the U.S. was insufficient because Elk was born as a subject of an Indian nation that was an alien power, and he had never been naturalized through treaty or statute.
“The United States’ connection with the children of illegal aliens and temporary visitors is weaker than its connection with members of Indian tribes. If the latter link is insufficient for birthright citizenship, the former certainly is,” the Trump administration argued.
However, the issue of Native citizenship was seemingly settled in 1924 with the passage of the Indian Citizenship Act, which granted citizenship to all Native Americans born in the U.S.