Tribal leaders say ICE is detaining American Indians during immigration sweeps

When ICE detained four homeless men who had been living under a bridge in Minneapolis, they took members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, according to the tribe’s president.

Oglala Sioux tribal attorneys are trying to locate the men and secure their release, President Frank Star Comes Out said last week. He said he instructed tribal members approached or detained by ICE to declare their tribal affiliation, which makes them U.S. citizens under federal law and not subject to immigration enforcement.

Thousands of federal officers descended on Minnesota as part of what Trump administration officials called the largest immigration operation ever carried out. Now leaders of Minneapolis’ American Indian community say their people are being stopped and harassed, profiled for the color of their skin.

Approximately 50,000 American Indians live in the Twin Cities, making it one of the nation’s largest urban Native hubs. The Franklin Avenue corridor in Minneapolis is an American Indian cultural district and home of the Minneapolis American Indian Center.

“There’s a lot of fear that has come out of these situations where, because our people are brown-skinned, they’re being questioned, and undoubtedly it’s racism,” said Red Lake Nation Secretary Sam Strong. “The first people of Minnesota are being detained for being immigrants. I mean, just on its face, it’s just so wrong.”

ICE detained a Red Lake descendant, 20-year-old Jose Roberto Ramirez, after pulling him out of a car at the Robbinsdale Hy-Vee early Thursday. Roberto Ramirez was released after his mother, a Red Lake tribal member, provided his birth certificate.

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to questions about the arrests of American Indians or the whereabouts of the four Oglala Sioux men.

“My heart breaks to hear about what’s happening and it pisses me off,” Flanagan said in a statement. “To Indian Country — take care of each other, protect each other, and continue to have each other’s backs. I’m with you. This won’t be the last you hear from me on this.”

Underneath a bridge at Cedar and 17th avenues, homeless people who have been trying to survive the winter in tents told the Minnesota Star Tribune that ICE apparently detained the four men without looking for credentials.

“I mean, isn’t that wasting a lot of money that could go elsewhere?” asked Zena Brown, a Red Lake tribal member, as she gestured to the encampment around her. “We’re like the First Nations people. How are you gonna do that?”

There have been other reports of homeless people being confronted by ICE, unable to prove their citizenship status for lack of documentation.

Ruth Buffalo, who runs a resource center that takes in homeless people in severe weather, said she closed on Thursday and Friday because her Native staff were scared to leave their homes.

As an anti-ICE protest amassed in Powderhorn Park on Saturday afternoon, tribal officials set up at Pow Wow Grounds, a coffee shop on Franklin Avenue. They were helping urban Natives update their tribal IDs and find their enrollment papers.

Rachel Dionne-Thunder, a prominent activist and member of the American Indian Movement, stationed herself at Pow Wow Grounds in between shifts driving through the Phillips community as an ICE observer. On her phone was a steady stream of neighborhood chatter about ICE sightings and arrests.

On Friday, federal agents blocked in her truck on Franklin and 14th avenues, tried to open her door, demanded she roll down her window and threatened to break it when she didn’t comply. Members of the Many Shields Society, a community security force, ran up blowing whistles and honking their car horns. The agents retreated.

At one point in the altercation, which was recorded and widely shared, Dionne-Thunder’s husband, Vinny Dionne, told the agent they were on Native land, to which the agent pointed to himself and said no, it was their land, the couple recalled.

“If that same situation had happened where [Many Shields] weren’t, it would have had a different outcome,” Dionne-Thunder said.