As the Trump Administration ramps up Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity in Minnesota, several Native Americans have been reported to be victims of unlawful stops and arrests made by ICE agents.
Among the most noteworthy is Red Lake Nation descendant and U.S. citizen, Jose Roberto Ramirez, 20, who was detained by ICE agents in Robbinsdale, Minnesota, on Jan. 8.
Ramirez’s mother, Raelyn Duffy, is an enrolled tribal citizen of the Red Lake Nation. Ramirez was born in Minneapolis and has been a U.S. citizen since birth.
Ramirez was on his way to his aunt, Shawnite Sosa-Clara’s house in Crystal, Minnesota when he noticed he was being followed by a federal agent’s vehicle. He began to panic and pulled over at a nearby grocery store and waited for his aunt. Sosa-Clara began videoing the interaction as ICE agents surrounded the car.
The video from Sosa-Clara’s phone shows ICE agents reaching into the car to start repeatedly hitting Ramirez and dragging him from his aunt’s vehicle.
“I was complying with them and they just started acting crazy,” Ramirez told ICT, the non-profit IndiJ Public Media’s multimedia outlet.
Ramirez was detained and held at the B.H. Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis. He was denied food, water, and access to a bathroom for the entirety of his detainment.
“I felt like I was kidnapped,” Ramirez told ICT.
His mother said she had initially brought his passport and birth certificate as proof of his U.S. citizenship to the B.H. Whipple Building, but claims she was turned away and was not allowed to contact her son for hours. Ramirez claims that once agents finally questioned him, they told him that he had “assaulted an officer who had been sent to the hospital and that charges against him were pending.” At no point did agents explain why he was being followed by their vehicle in the first place, according to ICT.
Ramirez is facing federal charges for allegedly assaulting an officer while detained. Ramirez is being represented by a Minneapolis-based attorney.
The Native American Rights Fund, or NARF, is a legal advocacy group dedicated to protecting Native American rights. NARF had issued a statement after Ramirez was detained, addressing all unlawful ICE activity but focusing on Native Americans being unlawfully detained by ICE.
“Native Americans, the first peoples of the land, are among those who are being detained. These arrests blatantly violate the treaty, as well of the constitutional and civil rights of the Native Americans being apprehended,” reads the NARF statement.
Native American officials believe this is racial profiling.
“It’s indicative of the racial profiling that is happening, and we refuse to stand by while the United States government abducts Native people,” said NARF Executive Director and enrolled Pawnee Nation citizen John Echohawk.
This is concerning, because citizens of sovereign tribal nations are dual citizens of their respective tribal nations and the U.S. under The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924.
Nia Gregory, a professor of ethnic studies at Delta College and a Cherokee Nation citizen, said ICE’s current behavior towards tribal citizens is no surprise to her.
“We know this administration is racist, so profiling is one thing, but detaining and charging is another. When ICE started to organize and we started to see them pop up, tribal governments reminded their citizens to carry tribal ID, but that won’t matter, they are showing us that they are doing what they want and that unfortunately native people in this country are still an Indian problem, and they are still settlers,” said Gregory.
Gregory is not wrong, as the U.S. federal government has a long history of getting rid of Native nation’s sovereignty as apart of the genocide of Native American people.
“I believe if people learned Native history we would all benefit, because Native ways weren’t oppressive, we limited harm intentionally. American history isn’t Native history, but Native history is American history. Let that sink in, think about how our story is ongoing and not a history at all,” said Greogy. This serves as a reminder that Native American people are still here and still fighting colonialism and threats to tribal sovereignty, and ICE overstepping their jurisdiction and racially profiling Native Americans is a part of the ongoing colonialism Native Americans are still facing today.
As of Jan. 29, Ramirez has not been the only tribal citizen to be arrested and detained by ICE. According to a press release by Arizona House Democrats, a Navajo Nation citizen, Peter Yazzie, was arrested and detained by ICE despite having government-issued identification on him. The Navajo Nation Council has since put out a statement asking federal agencies to respect tribal identification during ICE operations. “Indigenous people are the first people of this country and hold inherent rights. Any enforcement action that disregards valid tribal identification places Navajo citizens at risk of wrongful questioning, detention, or separation from their families,” says Navajo Nation Speaker Crystalyne Curley.
Other tribal governments have put out statements reminding tribal citizens of their rights such as the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan, and some have even banned ICE agents from entering their reservations, including the Oglala Sioux Tribe and the Yankton Sioux Tribe of South Dakota. Each federally recognized tribal nation is a sovereign nation, and has the right to determine if U.S. federal agents are allowed on their land.
