According to President Donald Trump’s campaign pledge to carry out mass deportations from day one, American citizens, including those of Native tribe countries, have been dragged into the massive immigration operations he ordered.
Witnesses claim that those who are apprehended during Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations are singled out due to their race or skin tone.
Tribal people living off-reservation called the Navajo Nation Office in droves, many of whom claimed that ICE officers had asked them who they were, according to Native News Online.
ICE’s questioning of American citizens who belong to the Navajo Nation has been so bad that Navajo President Buu Nygren addressed the issue on the radio. According to Native News Online, Nygren told the tribal radio station KTNN that he has heard stories of unpleasant and occasionally traumatic interactions between ICE and members of the Navajo Nation.
He recommended that citizens of the Navajo Nation keep their driver’s licenses, identification, and Certificate of Indian Blood on hand.
Regarding the detention and interrogation of Navajo Nation individuals and allegations of racial profiling, NBC News contacted ICE but has not heard back as of yet.
During an immigration operation in Newark, New Jersey, ICE detained and interrogated a seafood wholesaler employee who was a U.S. citizen and veteran of the armed forces.
The service veteran “suffered the indignity of having the legitimacy of his military documentation questioned,” according to Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who condemned the ICE operation.
In reference to the operation, ICE said that they might come across Americans while on the ground and ask for identification in order to verify a person’s identity.
Puerto Rican warehouse manager Luis Janota, owner of the seafood distributor, told WPIXin New York that his manager was also in custody. Residents of Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, are citizens of the United States.
I got the impression that they were targeting particular types of people rather than all of them. Janota informed the station that this was because they did not request documentation for my Portuguese, American, or Caucasian employees.
More deportations, worries over ‘increased profiling’
Since President Trump took office, ICE has increased the number of arrests and deportations. ICE Director Tim Homan stated this week that he would prioritize dangerous offenders, but he also stated that the administration will make what it refers to as collateral arrests—arrests of undocumented immigrants who have not been convicted of any crimes.
Nearly half of those detained on Sunday (48%) had a history of nonviolent offenses or had committed no crimes at all.
It is a civil infraction to be in the United States without legal status. It is a misdemeanor to enter the nation illegally, whether through ports of entry, without inspection, or by making false assertions. It is a criminal to reenter or attempt to reenter.
But shortly, the requirements for arrest and deportation will be broadened. The Laken Riley Act, which is pending Trump’s signing, would permit the arrest and detention of those who are not authorized to be in the nation and who have been charged with crimes that result in death or significant bodily harm, such as shoplifting, burglary, theft, or larceny.
Everyone is vulnerable to detention when enforcement objectives are lacking, according to Rosanna Eugenio, legal director at the New York Immigration Coalition. Additionally, it produces the circumstances that result in more profiling. How can you know if someone is seeking legal status in this nation or does not currently have it? Just by looking at someone, you can’t tell. However, it will set the stage for communities of color, immigrant communities, and other groups to be profiled.
To make the arrests, the administration is not depending solely on ICE officers. In addition to several states and localities offering assistance or expressing their willingness to do so, the president directed staff in a number of agencies to help with the arrest and detention of immigrants. Although the administration has been targeting places whose authorities have stated that their local law enforcement will not back Trump, some arrests have been conducted in cities where officials support the arrests.
In New York City, a number of law enforcement agencies made arrests Tuesday morning. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and the Drug Enforcement Agency, or DEA, posted about the arrests on social media.
Funding realities may soon confront the mass deportation efforts. Trump’s promise of mass deportations will require additional funding from Congress, according to Border Czar Tom Homan, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has stated that “we don’t have the resources.”
Immigration groups were working to ensure that immigrants knew what to do in the event that they were caught in Trump’s immigration crackdown as it expanded to other cities and towns around the nation.
People being aware of their rights is currently our best defense. Remain composed and don’t fib. Keep quiet. “Don’t agree to the search,” stated Murad Awadeh, the New York Immigration Coalition’s president and CEO. Make sure the judicial warrant is signed by a judge and do not unlock the door without one.
Trump made repeated references to Dwight D. Eisenhower’s mass deportations of largely Mexican immigrants in the 1950s under the racist moniker Operation Wetback during the campaign.
During the operation, U.S. citizens of Mexican heritage were also ejected from the nation. Trump has stated that he would carry out more mass deportations than Eisenhower did.
However, more recent arrests and deportations of U.S. citizens have occurred: a 2021 Government Accountability Office report states that between October 1, 2015, and March 2020, ICE apprehended 674 potential U.S. citizens, imprisoned 121, and deported 70.
At the time, the GAO claimed that ICE did not adequately track its interactions with U.S. residents and had contradictory regulations regarding questioning them.
Additionally, the GAO discovered that during that time, ICE submitted detainers to at least 895 prospective U.S. citizens, requesting that a local authority hold an undocumented immigrant suspected of committing another offense. In the end, almost 74% of the detainers were canceled.