Fearing ICE, native Americans rush to prove their right to belong in US
When US Immigration and Customs Enforcement flooded Minneapolis, Shane Mantz dug his Choctaw Nation citizenship card out of a box on his dresser and slid it into his wallet. Some strangers mistake the pest-control company manager for Latino, he said, and he fears getting caught up in ICE raids. Like Mantz, many Native Americans are carrying tribal documents proving their US citizenship in case they are stopped or questioned by federal immigration agents.
This is why dozens of the 575 federally recognized Native nations are making it easier to get tribal IDs. They’re waiving fees, lowering the age of eligibility - ranging from 5 to 18 nationwide — and printing the cards faster. It’s the first time tribal IDs have been widely used as proof of US citizenship and protection against federal law enforcement, said David Wilkins, an expert on Native politics and governance at the University of Richmond.
“I don’t think there’s anything historically comparable,” Wilkins said. “I find it terribly frustrating and disheartening.” As Native Americans around the country rush to secure documents proving their right to live in the United States, many see a bitter irony. “As the first people of this land, there’s no reason why Native Americans should have their citizenship questioned,” said Jaqueline De Leon, a senior staff attorney with the nonprofit Native American Rights Fund and member of Isleta Pueblo.
The US Department of Homeland Security didn’t respond to more than four requests for comment over a week. Since the mid- to late 1800s, the US government has kept detailed genealogical records to estimate Native Americans’ fraction of “Indian blood” and determine their eligibility for health care, housing, education and other services owed under federal legal responsibilities. Those records were also used to aid federal assimilation efforts and chip away at tribal sovereignty, communal lands and identity.
Beginning in the late 1960s, many tribal nations began issuing their own forms of identification. In the last two decades, tribal photo ID cards have become commonplace and can be used to vote in tribal elections, to prove US work eligibility and for domestic air travel.
About 70 per cent of Native Americans today live in urban areas, including tens of thousands in the Twin Cities, 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 commonplace in some neighborhoods.
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 American Indian Movement - to accept ID applications from 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 his young adult son’s and his daughter’s first ones. “You just get nervous,” Houle said.
“I think more or less racial profiling people, including me.” Events in downtown coffee shops, hotel ballrooms, and at the Minneapolis American Indian Center helped urban tribal citizens connect and share resources, said Christine Yellow Bird, who directs the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation’s satellite office in Fargo, North Dakota.
