In the height of irony, members of the Navajo Nation are reportedly being swept up in federal raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, even though they are the ultimate indigenous people of the country and legal U.S. citizens.
“Recent reports of negative interactions with federal immigration agents have raised concerns that have prompted fear and anxiety among our community members,” Navajo Nation president Dr. Buu Nygren wrote in a statement.
“Being Indigenous, being Navajo, you’re more American than being American,” he added in a separate interview with Arizona Mirror. “We got to have that respect from the federal government.”
At least 15 Indigenous people in Arizona and New Mexico have been stopped and questioned or detained as part of federal immigration enforcement operations, Navajo Nation officials told CNN.
Arizona state Senator Theresa Hatathlie, who is Diné/Navajo, told the outlet she received a report from a Navajo woman who reported that she and seven other Indigenous people were detained at a work site in Scottsdale, Arizona, and questioned for hours without their phones or any other way to contact their families or other officials.
“These raids have sparked significant fear, especially among tribal members in urban areas who face challenges with documentation,” the Navajo Nation said in a statement last week.
“Despite possessing Certificates of Indian Blood (CIBs) and state-issued IDs, several individuals have been detained or questioned by ICE agents who do not recognize these documents as valid proof of citizenship,” the statement added.
The Independent has contacted ICE for comment.
The Trump administration is spreading fear in tribal communities across the country, after it began openly questioning indigenous people’s citizenship status as part of its larger attempt to end birthright citizenship.
It also recently confirmed South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem to lead ICE’s parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security.
Noem has had a contentious relationship with her state’s tribes, many of whom banned her from accessing their territory after she accused tribal members of being absentee parents and in cahoots with drug cartels.
Donald Trump’s planned campaign of mass deportations has gotten off to a chaotic start.
In New Jersey, a U.S. military veteran with documentation was reportedly detained by agents who didn’t produce a warrant.
As The Independent has reported, in Chicago, meanwhile, ICE agents arrived in unmarked black trucks, causing “heightened anxiety and fear,” so much so Chicago school officials set off a false alarm that immigration officials were raiding an elementary school.
