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. Navajo Nation officials say these reports, which have caused panic amongst tribal communities, come amid the Trump administration’s attempt to ramp up undocumented immigrant arrests nationwide.
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.
The reports, which have caused panic amongst tribal communities in both states, come amid the Trump administration’s attempt to ramp up undocumented immigrant arrests nationwide and amass a larger force to carry out the president’s deportation pledge. CNN has reached out to the White House for comment. The reported raids and the exact number of Diné/Navajo and other Indigenous tribal citizens who were apprehended are still under investigation, Navajo Nation Council Speaker Crystalyne Curley told CNN. It is unclear if Immigration and Customs Enforcement or other law enforcement entities were conducting the apprehensions. ICE has not responded to CNN’s request for comment. Navajo Nation officials have contacted the Department of Homeland Security, the governors of Arizona and New Mexico, and ICE to address the reports, the Office of Navajo President Buu Nygren said in a news release Friday. “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,” Nygren said in the release. Justin Ahasteen, executive director of the Navajo Nation Washington Office, said his office has not confirmed any reports of ICE action against Navajo citizens. According to Ahasteen, one tribal member was involved in a raid in Phoenix. Ahasteen told CNN the incident was a “wrong place, wrong time” situation and the tribal member, who presented their tribal identification and was questioned while in custody, was not the intended target. The person was released, Ahasteen said. CNN has also contacted New Mexico State Police, the Navajo County Sheriff’s Office and the Navajo Nation Police Department for comment. Arizona state Sen. Theresa Hatathlie, who is Diné/Navajo, told CNN she received a report from the family of a Navajo woman who said she was questioned by ICE and asked to show proof that she was Native after her workplace was raided Wednesday morning. The woman says she was at her work site in Scottsdale, Arizona, when she and seven other Indigenous citizens were lined up behind white vans and questioned for two hours without their cell phones or a way to contact their families, according to Hatathlie. “Now is it ICE or some other entity, I don’t know,” said Hatathlie, who represents Legislative District 6, which encompasses the Navajo Nation. “I did work with some individuals to confirm whether or not ICE did do that work site raid, but the communication back to me was that it’s not a normal practice for ICE to confirm a raid or not.” The woman says she was eventually permitted to use her cell phone and text family members, who sent her a photo of her Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood (CDIB), and she was then allowed to leave, Hatathlie said. It is unclear what happened to the seven other Indigenous people who were questioned. The Navajo Nation Council received the reports through social media and calls to council delegates from families who said they were visited by ICE at their apartments and place of work, Curley said. “There’s a lot of fear, and I know they’re probably feeling frustrated knowing that they don’t feel safe in the country where they were born or where their ancestors come from and there’s a lot of frustration of them being stereotyped,” Curley told CNN. “I think there’s a confusion with other races, maybe just because having a brown skin, automatically being profiled or stereotyped to be in a certain group of race.” Hatathlie pointed to the double standard of Indigenous people welcoming settlers who later colonized their lands, forced Native children into violent boarding schools and banned displays of Native cultural practices, only to be victims of practices such as immigration raids – when the law enforcement officials’ ancestors were immigrants themselves, she said. ”If you can’t say, ‘we’ve been here for time immemorial,’ then you’re an immigrant. You’re not from here, so who are you to classify our Indigenous people? These lands have been a melting pot for many ethnicities,” Hatathlie said. “It’s too kind to say it’s racism or discrimination. It’s disrespect for humanity.” Indigenous people urged to carry their documentation Operation Rainbow Bridge, a nonprofit that supports Navajo citizens who are victims of Medicaid fraud in Arizona, has launched the Immigration Crisis Initiative to assist Indigenous people impacted by federal law enforcement raid
IMMIGRATION RAIDS INDIGENOUS PEOPLE NAVAJO NATION ARIZONA NEW MEXICO TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ICE
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