Trump immigration raids snag U.S. citizens, including Native Americans, raising racial profiling fears
American citizens, including citizens of Native tribal nations, have been pulled into the vast immigration operations ordered by President Donald Trump in accordance with his campaign vow to conduct mass deportations since Day 1.
Those who are getting caught in Immigrations and Customs Enforcement raids are being targeted because of their race or skin color, according to witnesses.
The Navajo Nation Office was flooded with calls from tribal members living off-reservation, with many reporting being questioned about their identity by ICE officers, Native News Online reported.
Questioning of Navajo Nation citizens, who are American citizens, by ICE has been problematic enough that Navajo President Buu Nygren took to the airwaves to address it. On tribal radio station KTNN, Nygren said he had received accounts of 'negative and sometimes traumatizing' encounters between ICE and Navajo Nation citizens, Native News Online reported.
He advised Navajo Nation residents to carry identification, driver's licenses and their Certificate of Indian Blood.
NBC News reached out to ICE regarding the detaining and questioning of Navajo Nation citizens and complaints of racial profiling, and has not yet received a response.
One of the employees d etained and questioned by ICE at a seafood wholesaler during an immigration raid in Newark, New Jersey, was a U.S. citizen and military veteran.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka denounced the ICE raid, saying the military veteran "suffered the indignity of having the legitimacy of his military documentation questioned.'
Regarding the raid, ICE stated they 'may encounter U.S. citizens while conducting field work and may request identification to establish an individual's identity.'
The seafood wholesaler's owner, Luis Janota, told WPIX in New York that his warehouse manager, who was also detained, was Puerto Rican. Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory and its residents are U.S. citizens.
'It looked to me like they were specifically going after certain kinds of people — not every kind. Because they did not ask me for documentation for my American workers, Portuguese workers or white workers,' Janota told the station.
More deportations, worries over 'increased profiling'
ICE has stepped up arrests and deportations since President Trump took office. While he had said he would prioritize violent criminals, ICE Director Tim Homan also said this week that arrests of undocumented immigrants without criminal convictions — which the administration calls collateral arrests — would occur.
On Sunday, almost half of the people arrested, 48%, had nonviolent offenses on their record or were people who had not committed any offense.
Being in the U.S. without legal status is a civil violation. Entering the country without inspection, between ports of entry or based on false statements — what is considered illegal entry — is a misdemeanor. Re-entering, or attempting to re-enter, is a felony.
The criteria for who is arrested and deported will soon be expanded, however. A bill awaiting Trump's signature, the Laken Riley Act, will allow the arrest and detention of people who are not legally in the country and have been charged — they do not have to be convicted — with burglary, theft, larceny, shoplifting, or crimes that lead to death or serious bodily injury.
'When you don't have enforcement priorities, everyone is subject to detention,' said Rosanna Eugenio, legal director at the New York Immigration Coalition. 'It also creates this situation that leads to increased profiling. How do you tell that someone does not have legal status in this country or is in the process of seeking legal status? You can't tell that by looking at someone. But it will create conditions where there will be profiling of communities, immigrant communities, and communities of color.'
The administration is not relying only on ICE officers to make the arrests. The president ordered personnel in several agencies to assist in arresting and detaining immigrants, and some states and cities also are assisting or have said they are willing to assist. Some arrests have been made in cities where officials support the arrests, but the administration also has been targeting cities whose officials have said their local law enforcement would not assist Trump,
On Tuesday morning, several law enforcement agencies made arrests in New York City. The arrests were showcased on social media in posts by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and the Drug Enforcement Agency, DEA.
The mass deportation efforts may soon run into funding realities. Border czar Tom Homan has said Congress will have to pony up more money to pay for Trump's mass deportation pledge and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has said "we don't have the resources."
As Trump's immigration crackdown spread to more cities and towns around the country, immigration advocates were trying to make sure immigrants know what to do if they are caught in the crackdown.
'Our best defense in this moment is people knowing their rights. Stay calm, don't lie. Remain silent. Don't consent to the search,' said Murad Awadeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition. 'Do not open the door without a judicial warrant, as well as making sure that it's signed by a judge.'
During the campaign, Trump frequently alluded to mass deportations carried out by Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1950s under the label 'Operation Wetback,' a racist term used against mostly Mexican immigrants.
U.S. citizens of Mexican descent were also expelled from the country during that operation. Trump has said his mass deportations would be larger than those of Eisenhower's.
But there have been more recent arrests and deportations of American citizens: From Oct. 1, 2015, to March 2020, ICE arrested 674 potential U.S. citizens, detained 121 and removed 70, according to a 2021 Government Accountability Office report.
The GAO said at the time that ICE had conflicting policies on questioning U.S. citizens and did not track its encounters with U.S. citizens well.
The GAO also found that ICE issued detainers — asking a local jurisdiction to hold a suspected undocumented immigrant who had been arrested in another crime — for at least 895 potential U.S. citizens during that period. It eventually cancelled about 74% of the detainers.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mirror
17 minutes ago
- Daily Mirror
UK issues unusual 'rising tensions' warning as US orders diplomatic evacuations
The Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), a British maritime security agency, has taken measures following Donald Trump's move to issue evacuation orders for non-essential personnel The UK has issued an "unusual warning" to its commercial ships in the Middle East amid "rising tensions". The Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) fears "an escalation of military activity" is on the cards across the region, and believs security may be at risk. It says vessels must use the Arabian Gulf, Gulf of Oman and Straits of Hormuz, all of which pass Iran, with caution for the forseeable future. Iran publicly threatened to attack US military bases in the Middle East if they were attacked first. Donald Trump added fuel to the fire yesterday, crassly stating the country will never have a nuclear weapon whether a deal is reached or not. 'UKMTO has been made aware of increased tensions within the region which could lead to an escalation of military activity having a direct impact on mariners. Vessels are advised to transit the Arabian Gulf, Gulf of Oman and Straits of Hormuz with caution," the UKMTO said today. The Trump administration has issued evacuation orders for non-essential personnel at the US Embassy in Iraq, and its diplomatic facilities in Bahrain and Kuwait. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth also told FOX News there would be voluntary departure for dependents of military personnel serving in the Central Command (CENTCOM) area of operations across the Middle East. This discourse led to the UKMTO advisory today as regional tensions surged. Iranian officials appeared to be responding to calls from hawks in the US to dismantle Iran's nuclear program by force if necessary. But Mr Trump was pessimistic when interviewed earlier this week. The US President said: "I don't know. I'm less confident now than I would have been a couple of months ago. Something happened to them, but I am much less confident of a deal being made." He spoke on the podcast Pod Force One on Monday, which explored in depth the tense situation across the Middle East. Meanwhile, suspected US airstrikes on Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen killed at least three people recently. Yemeni rebels said they shot down a £25m Reaper attack drone during April's onslaught, which indicated a possible US attack on Iran. It happened after the US moved six of its prized B-2 Strategic Stealth bombers to the secretive Indo-Pacific island base of Diego Garcia. Hours after the surprise announcement of the Washington-Tehran talks, Iran's foreign minister said the conversation in Oman would be "indirect" but could be "as much an opportunity as... a test." Mr Trump - who pulled the US out a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers during his first term - said discussions would be at "very high level," as he delivered his warning to Tehran.
Spectator
23 minutes ago
- Spectator
Elon Musk and the art of flattery
Flattery will get you everywhere, as the sycophants that surround Donald Trump, Kim Jong-un, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping know. Which makes Elon Musk's defection rather interesting. Trump's policies meant that Musk simply could not flatter him any more just to satisfy his inexhaustible self-love, which, says the Greek essayist, biographer and diplomat Plutarch (d. c. ad 120), is what gives the kolax ('flatterer') his foothold: the person he wishes to flatter, his victim, will be only too happy for the kolax to endlessly proclaim his qualities and abilities. Naturally, the kolax does not pay attention to poor, obscure or unimportant persons – where is the gain in that? – but only to those with power, engaged in great affairs. Since friendship is cemented by a likeness of pursuits and habits, and since delight in the same things brings people together in the first place, the kolax adjusts and shapes himself, as though he were so much inert matter, to adapt to the character of his victim. Like a cuttlefish which changes its colour, texture and shape at will, the kolax identifies his victim's interests and, abandoning his own feelings, captures like a mirror the image of his victim. People (it is said, for example) used to copy Plato's stoop, Aristotle's lisp and Alexander the Great's twisted neck. Observe also the kolax taking a good seat at the theatre in order to give it up to his victim; or falling silent at a debate to allow his victim to speak and to agree with him; or proclaiming his victim not just wealthy and blessed but also supreme in intelligence, technical skill and every excellence. Watch the kolax disapprove of the actions of those whom his victim dislikes, while commending everything that pleases him. The kolax will show that his victim's tastes are excellent by imitating them, and that his prowess is unrivalled by letting himself be outdone. Like water that is poured into one receptacle after another, the kolax is constantly on the move, changing from shape to shape in tune with his victim. But at least Musk knows he will live to fight another day, unlike the terrified flatterers of the others in the list above.
The Independent
41 minutes ago
- The Independent
Troops begin detaining immigrants in national defense zone at border in escalation of military role
U.S. troops have begun directly detaining immigrants accused of trespassing on a recently designated national defense zone along the southern U.S. border, in an escalation of the military's enforcement role, authorities said Wednesday U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Chad Campbell described in detail the first detentions by troops last week of three immigrants accused of trespassing in a national defense area near Santa Teresa, New Mexico. Those migrants were quickly turned over to U.S. Customs and Border Protection and are now among more than 1,400 migrants to have been charged with illegally entering militarized areas along that border, under a new border enforcement strategy from President Donald Trump 's administration. Troops are prohibited from conducting civilian law enforcement on U.S. soil under the Posse Comitatus Act. But an exception known as the military purpose doctrine allows it in some instances. Authorities 'noticed three individuals crossing the protective barrier into the United States,' Campbell said. 'A Department of Defense response went to interdict those three individuals, told them to sit down. ... In a matter of three minutes, border patrol agents came in to apprehend. So that three minutes is that temporary detention' by the military. Trump has designated two national military defense areas along the southern U.S. border for New Mexico and a 60-mile (97-kilometer) stretch of western Texas, from El Paso to Fort Hancock, while transferring much of the land from the Interior Department to oversight by the Department of Defense for three years. The Trump administration plans eventually to add more militarized zones along the border, a military spokesman said Wednesday at a news conference in El Paso. 'We have been very clear that there will be additional National Defense Areas across the southern border,' said Geoffrey Carmichael, a spokesperson for an enforcement task force at the southern border. 'I won't speculate to where those are going to be.' Proponents of the militarized zones, including federal prosecutors, say the approach augments traditional efforts by Customs and Border Protection and other law enforcement agencies to secure the border. 'These partnerships and consequences exist so that we can promote the most humane border environment we've ever had,' El Paso sector Border Patrol Chief Agent Walter Slosar said. 'We are dissuading people from entering the smuggling cycle ... to make sure that smugglers cannot take advantage of individuals who are trying to come into the United States.' Defense attorneys — and judges in some instances — are pushing back against the novel application of national security charges against immigrants who enter through those militarized zones — and carry a potential sentence of 18 months in prison on top of a possible six-month sentence for illegal entry. A judge in New Mexico has dismissed more than 100 national security charges against immigrants, finding little evidence that immigrants knew about the national defense areas. Those migrants still confronted charges of illegal entry to the U.S. In Texas, a Peruvian woman who crossed the U.S. border illegally was acquitted of unauthorized access to a newly designated militarized zone in the first trial under the Trump administration's efforts. U.S. Attorney Justin Simmons, who oversees western Texas, vowed to press forward with more military trespassing charges. 'We're gonna keep going forward on these NDA charges,' Simmons said. 'We are gonna still bring them, we may win on them, we may not. ... At the end of the day, you are not going to be allowed to stay in this country if you enter this country illegally.' Greater military engagement at the border takes place at the same time dozens of mayors from across the Los Angeles region banded together Wednesday to demand that the Trump administration stop the stepped-up immigration raids that have spread fear across their cities and sparked protests across the U.S. Trump has authorized the deployment of an additional 2,000 National Guard members to respond to immigration protests in LA. That directive brings the total number of Guard put on federal orders for the protests to more than 4,100. The Pentagon had already deployed about 700 Marines to the protests to the city.
