The Lac du Flambeau Tribal Council announced on January 30th that there’s been no reported incidents involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement on its reservation.
Still, Tribal Council is urging tribal members to take precautions.
“I think it was really overwhelming week last week, and just so many different rumors and stuff like that,” said Araia Breedlove, Lac du Flambeau Tribal Public Relations Director. “It [the announcement] was a way to not only calm our members saying, ‘Hey, there's no incidents, but let's just stay cautious.’”
The concerns with ICE stem from reports in the Southwest of Native Americans encountering ICE officers.
In a letter to President Trump, Democrat U.S. lawmakers from Arizona, New Mexico and California call for ICE to “stop harassing Native Americans and violating Tribal Sovereignty.”
“Anyone reading the news knows that our Native relatives down south are really dealing heavily with this issue,” said Breedlove. “It was just a way to reassure our members that we're staying on top of it and we're advocating for their safety.”
Lac du Flambeau is encouraging tribal members to:
- Carry multiple forms of identification.
- Know their rights.
- Report suspicious activity to Tribal Police
Breedlove says being detained is a worse-case scenario, “We'd rather be safe than sorry.”
Other Tribal Nations in Wisconsin have been sharing similar messages with their tribal members.
Stockbridge-Munsee Tribal Council put out a press release asking all tribal members to prepare for the possibility of being stopped and questions. Similar to Lac du Flambeau, Stockbridge-Munsee is encouraging tribal members to keep a tribal, state, or federal ID with them at all times.
Ho-Chunk Nation is waiving the fee for Tribal IDs for tribal members and is looking at creating a program to reimburse tribal members who get a passport, citing it as the country’s most valid form of Real I.D. and U.S. Citizenship.