By Andrew Hay
(Reuters) – Native Americans and Democratic lawmakers allege Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are harassing tribal members as they carry out President Donald Trump’s crackdown on migrants.
Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren said his citizens have had “traumatizing” experiences with ICE agents, and U.S. Congressional Democrats called on Trump to stop the agency targeting Native Americans as it carried out immigration raids.
ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It has previously said its agents may encounter U.S. citizens during operations and request identification from them.
“ICE’s dangerous behavior of harassing American citizens, seemingly only due to the way they look, is unconstitutional and un-American,” nine Democrats led by New Mexico Representative Teresa Leger Fernandez said in a Wednesday letter to Trump.
The lawmakers cited a Jan. 22 incident reported by the Mescalero Apache tribe in which an ICE agent stopped a tribal member at a convenience store in Ruidoso, New Mexico and asked to see proof of U.S. citizenship.
Nygren, head of the United States’ largest Native American reservation, is among indigenous leaders urging members to proactively carry state-issued identification cards and their Certificate of Indian Blood, an official U.S. document certifying a person has Native American ancestry.
Native Americans were granted U.S. citizenship in 1924.
Trump issued a range of executive orders after taking office Jan. 20 that aim to clamp down on illegal immigration.
“My office has received multiple reports from Navajo citizens that they have had negative, and sometimes traumatizing, experiences with federal agents targeting undocumented immigrants,” Nygren, a Democrat, said in a statement last week, without providing further details.
(Reporting By Andrew Hay in New Mexico; Editing by Donna Bryson and Stephen Coates)
