The president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe demands that ICE immediately release three tribal members who are being illegally held at an ICE facility in Minnesota.
Now MAGA wants you to believe that Native Americans are somehow "illegal" immigrants...
“The Oglala Sioux Tribe’s memorandum makes clear that ‘tribal citizens are not aliens’ and are ‘categorically outside immigration jurisdiction,’" Star Comes Out, leader of the South Dakotan tribe stated. “Enrolled tribal members are citizens of the United States by statute and citizens of the Oglala Sioux Nation by treaty.”
The four tribal members in question were reportedly detained at a homeless encampment in Minnesota last week. Three of them were then transferred to an ICE facility at Fort Snelling while one was released.
“The irony is not lost on us,” said Frank Star Comes Out. “Lakota citizens who are reported to be held at Fort Snelling—a site forever tied to the Dakota 38+2—underscores why treaty obligations and federal accountability matter today, not just in history.”
The "Dakota 38+2" refers to the 38 Dakota men who were publicly hanged in 1862 in Minnesota in the largest mass execution in U.S. history.
“It has this really notorious anti-Indigenous, specifically anti-Dakota, history. It’s kind of like a continuation on the monopoly of violence from the military outpost to the ICE facility," Nick Estes, an associate professor in American Indian Studies, said of Fort Snelling.
Star Comes Out sent a memo to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to inform her that her agency refused to release information about the detainees unless the tribe "entered into an immigration agreement with ICE.” In other words, DHS is trying to use these men as bargaining chips to encroach on tribal sovereignty. Star Comes Out stated that the tribe will not be entering into such an agreement.
Star Comes Out is demanding information on the three men still in detention and the release of all tribal citizens in ICE custody. He has also requested a meeting between the tribe and the administration.
This shameful incident lays bare the ugly truth about Trump's "immigration enforcement." This was never about upholding the law (something which our felon president has flouted his entire life). This was always about seizing more power with brutal boots on the ground and targeting nonwhite people.
Nobody has more of right to be in this country than Native Americans. Trump must immediately free these detainees and make restitution.
