The Trump administration’s anti-immigration raids appear to be ensnaring all sorts of legal residents in the United States.
On Thursday, the 25th Navajo Nation Council addressed reports — including one from an Arizona state lawmaker — that members of their tribe had been swept up in the raids being conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Arizona state Sen. Theresa Hatathlie, a Democrat, noted that many members of the tribe may lack federally recognized identification documents.
The following day, the office of Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren issued a news release citing “negative, sometimes traumatizing, experiences” among Navajos and advising tribal members to “carry state-issued identification, such as a driver’s license, other picture identification, or their Certificate of Indian blood, known as a CIB.”
This appears to be the kind of dubious profiling that activists feared Trump would unleash as president.
Essentially, that means Navajos are being encouraged to carry their “freedom papers” to avoid harassment from Trump’s immigration officials. This appears to be the kind of dubious profiling that activists feared Trump would unleash as president. And it’s more than a little ironic that a crusade supposedly designed to make America great is harassing people who arguably have more right to be here — legally and morally — than just about anyone else.
Nygren’s news release said his office has been in contact with members of Congress and officials from ICE and the Department of Homeland Security, as well as the governors of Arizona and Mexico. On Monday, CNN reported:
At least 15 Indigenous people in Arizona and New Mexico have reported being stopped at their homes and workplaces, questioned or detained by federal law enforcement and asked to produce proof of citizenship during immigration raids since Wednesday, according to Navajo Nation officials.
These don’t appear to be the only incidents of mistaken immigration status by ICE, and they won’t be the last.
Last week in Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Ras Baraka released a statement after an ICE raid in his city, saying that citizens — including a U.S. military veteran with military documentation — had been detained without the agents producing a warrant.
“This egregious act is in plain violation of the Fourth Amendment,” Baraka wrote.
ICE, for what it’s worth, essentially said such acts are simply the cost of doing business.
“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement may encounter U.S. citizens while conducting field work and may request identification to establish an individual’s identity,” the agency said in a statement.