Why some Native American citizens worry about getting caught in ICE's net
- anigevorgn
- Feb 25
- 4 min read
Priscilla Weaver packed for her six-hour drive to Phoenix bringing along her U.S. passport and other forms ofidentification, including one showing she's a Navajo Nation citizen.
She said with her dark hair and brown skin she is sometimes mistaken for a member of another group and with the Trump administration’s push to deport millions of immigrants here illegally, she and some other Native Americans fear they could be wrongly stopped and questioned.
“You can’t take a chance on that. I was nervous about it,” said Weaver, 65, of Teec Nos Pos, Arizona. “We’re feeling the stress. It’s scary.”
Family and friends, she said, send texts warning each other to carry identification, including some showing they belong to a tribal community.
More than a dozen Democratic senators said they have heard similar concerns, including stops by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, and last week sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem urging her to address those worries.
“These incidents have stoked fear and panic for many Tribal citizens living on and off reservation,’’ they wrote.
Meanwhile, the Native American Rights Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union recently issued guidance to tribal leaders and communities recommending among other things that people know their civil rights and carry identification.
The administration has been targeting alleged Venezuelan gang members in high-profile raids but people of many nationalities, including in Latin America, are being swept up.
Advocates said they don’t know how widespread incidents of ICE stopping Native Americans are, but the anxiety is real.
“The fear of incidences happening is very high," said Jacqueline De León, senior staff attorney for the Native American Rights Fund, a nonprofit that provides legal assistance to Native American tribes, organizations and individuals.
De León said it's important to let people know “yes, they are unquestionably United States citizens and if they are approached by ICE, here are the steps that they can take to protect themselves.”
'Ramped up fear'
The concern is spurred in part by an increased presence of ICE agents and news reports of raids, activists said. Many reservations are in rural communities or near border towns in places like Arizona and New Mexico.
Native Americans have sometimes been mistaken for being Latino, activists said. “The communities have raised concerns about the potential of racial profiling,” De León said.
Concerns were also heightened after President Donald Trump issued an executive order ending birthright citizenship, the automatic citizenship granted under the 14th Amendment to all children born in the U.S.
Trump's executive order, which has so far been blocked by the courts, would end citizenship for children born on U.S. soil to parents who are not themselves citizens or lawful permanent residents.
The order alarmed some Native Americans, who until 1924 when Congress enacted the Indian Citizenship Act, were not considered U.S. citizens.
De León said even though Trump's order to eliminate birthright citizenship doesn't directly impact Native Americans, comments on social media, community concerns and new reports "have sort of ramped up fear."
Senate Democrats call for guidance
To ease concerns, the Native American Rights Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union issued guidance urging people to contact their tribal leaders if they run into problems. It’s the first time NARF has issued such guidance, De León said.
“We are trying to respond as quickly as possible to the needs of Indian country," she said. “And it was certainly being articulated to us that people were fearful.”
De León said some tribal leaders have also done public service announcements to reassure citizens. Some have posted guidance on Facebook urging members to carry tribal identification and to "remain calm and polite'' if approached by ICE agents.
More than a dozen Senate Democrats led by Martin Heinrich of New Mexico and Brian Schatz of Hawaii sent a letter to Noem last week urging her to issue guidance and training for ICE agents about what identification is acceptable to prove U.S. citizenship.
“Whether it is simple ignorance or worse, outright disrespect for and harassment of Tribal citizens, ICE’s law enforcement tactics reflect an abdication of U.S. trust and treaty responsibility with Tribal nations and their citizens, and cannot stand,’’ the senators wrote in a Feb. 18 letter.
Heinrich posted on Facebook last month a report that a member of the Mescalero Apache Tribe was stopped by an ICE agent, approached in Spanish and asked to show a U.S. passport.
"Tribal members are citizens of this country and were here long before it was the United States,'' he posted.
The senators also asked that the agency work on guidance for how agents should best engage with tribal governments and their communities. They requested a response by March 4.
ICE officials did not immediately return a request for comment.
‘We’re feeling the stress’
Weaver said she has traveled twice to Phoenix since Trump's inauguration and each time packed several forms of identification, including tucking her Certificate of Indian Blood in her planner so it’s easy to reach if she’s stopped.
Meanwhile, Weaver said a family member, who is planning a trip to Mexico, sent copies of her paperwork as a safety measure in case she’s stopped. The extra precautions are disappointing, Weaver said.
“People believe in our government," she said. “In the United States of America, you think we're protected here. We're feeling the stress of what Trump says. It's scary … He just says things about people of color and it's dangerous."
Weaver said because of her dark hair, dark skin and her accent (her first language is Navajo), her identity is sometimes mistaken.
“I don't look like a white American in other words," she said. “Sometimes people can’t distinguish me from other groups of people.”
The concerns remind Weaver of when her late father, a WWII veteran, told of being detained in San Francisco because officials thought he was Japanese.
“When my Dad told me the story, it just broke my heart," Weaver said.
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