Amelia Schafer
ICT
At least five Native American men have been detained and an unknown number questioned by immigration officers across the Minneapolis area in the midst of what a top official called the โlargest immigration raid ever.โ
After 2,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrived in Minneapolis early this week, Indigenous residents on the cityโs southside have witnessed agents question and even detain community members. Blocks away from a local Native American housing community, a 37-year-old mother was shot by ICE agents Wednesday, sparking nationwide protests.
โI think some of them [ICE] donโt even know what theyโre doing or where theyโre at,โ said Little Crow Belcourt, White Earth Ojibwe and the director of the Indigenous Peoples Movement. โTheyโre just pulling people over at random, if youโre Brown. Some of our Native (American) people get mistaken for our relatives south of the border.โ
Minneapolisโ southside, particularly around Franklin Avenue East, has historically been an area for Indigenous people to gather and live. South Side Housing was first taken over by the Indigenous community in 1975, when it became Little Earth, and since then the area has become the center for the Indigenous community. Community members often call Little Earth an urban reservation, Belcourt said.
On Tuesday, ICE agents attempted to enter Little Earth Housing Project property. Little Earth is the first Native American community housing project in the United States. Property managers told ICT they informed ICE that they were not welcome and turned agents away.
Early Friday morning, ICE agents attempted to detain another Native American community member, Rachel Dionne-Thunder, co-founder of the Indigenous Peoplesโ Movement, who was sitting in her car down the street from the Powwow Grounds coffee shop.
Coffee shop workers told ICT they ran outside to stop the agents and protect Dionne-Thunder, who recorded the incident on Facebook live.
Under a bridge near Little Earth, agents detained four Native American men, all citizens of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, according to tribal President Frank Star Comes Out. At least one of the men has been freed after a 12-hour hold, but the community is unaware of his whereabouts, a community advocate from Homeward Bound, a southside homeless advocacy center, told ICT on Friday.
On Thursday, a Red Lake Nation descendant, Jose Roberto โBetoโ Ramirez, was detained by ICE in a northern Minneapolis suburb as he was driving to visit his aunt.
Star Comes Out said the tribeโs attorneys have reached out to Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, White Earth Ojibwe, to learn more about where the Oglala Lakota men are being held. The names of the four men are not yet available.
Right now, the tribe is working with Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith, Democratic-Farmer-Labor-Farmer-Labor, her office told ICT.
โNative people have been here since time immemorial โ thereโs no one that has been a citizen of this country longer than us,โ Flanagan told ICT. โThe obvious racial profiling happening to our community is disgraceful. My heart breaks to hear about whatโs happening and it pisses me off. ICE is doing nothing but making our communities less safe. They need to get out of Minnesota and leave us alone. To Indian Country โ take care of each other, protect each other, and continue to have each otherโs backs. Iโm with you. This wonโt be the last you hear from me on this.โ
Star Comes Out said once tribal attorneys can locate the four men they plan to provide documentation of their citizenship and tribal membership status. The tribal president said the men were homeless and therefore unable to supply sufficient documentation of their own during the interaction.
Ramirez, the Red Lake man, was detained by ICE sometime after calling his aunt at 11 a.m. Thursday to tell her he was being followed by a black Ford SUV with at least four men inside, according to his aunt, Shawntia Sosa-Clara. Ramirez was driving to visit Sosa-Clark at her home in Crystal, Minnesota, directly outside of Minneapolis.
On Wednesday, nearly 24 hours before Ramirez reported being followed, Renee Nicole Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent outside her residence on the cityโs southside. That same morning, residents at Little Earth, a Native American residential neighborhood on the southside, reported ICE agents entering the building and dragging out individuals.
On Thursday evening, Ramirez was released from the Whipple Building in Minneapolis, where relatives were turned away earlier in the day while attempting to locate him and provide his passport and birth certificate.
When Ramirez realized he was being followed, he called his aunt Shawntia Sosa-Clara for help.
Over the phone, Sosa-Clara told Ramirez to stay calm, listen to the agents and stop at the HyVee Grocery Store in Robbinsdale, near where he was currently driving. Sosa-Clara called 911, informed them of the situation and quickly arrived and parked next to her nephew, who entered her vehicle.
Moments later approximately five ICE agents holding firearms exited the vehicle that had been following Ramirez. Sosa-Clara immediately began recording on her cellphone, which she posted to her Facebook page.
โI said, โThis is my nephew, heโs a citizen, weโre Native,โโ Sosa-Clara told ICT. Robbinsdale Police Department had already arrived at the scene, but did not intervene as shown by live footage on Sosa-Claraโs Facebook page.
ICE has not responded to ICT on why they were pursuing Ramirez or where he was taken.
In the video, agents are heard requesting to scan Ramirezโs face when moments later heโs struck by ICE agents on his face and body. Sosa-Clara is shown attempting to shield and pull back her nephew from agents before another ICE agent steps forward and restrains her.
Ramirez is then removed from his auntโs vehicle and held over a HyVee customerโs vehicle while five agents handcuff him.
โWhy couldnโt you help us?โ Sosa-Clara said to Robbinsdale police officers.
But the Robbinsdale Police Department couldnโt do anything but observe the situation, said Capt. John Elder.
Elder said Robbinsdale police don’t have jurisdiction over federal investigations, and cannot interfere.
โIt was wholly their [ICEโs] incident,โ Elder told ICT.
Sosa-Clara said the family was later connected to Ramirez through a lawyer who informed them ICE agents are alleging Ramirez struck them first. Red Lakeโs legal department was able to provide assistance to Ramirez and his family, Red Lake Nation Chairman Darrell G. Seki Sr. told ICT on Friday.
The family descends from the Red Lake Nation, Sosa-Clara said. While not enrolled, Sosa-Clara and Ramirezโs mother are descendants of the Red Lake Nation through their maternal great-grandparents who were the last to be enrolled. Red Lake Nation requires enrollees to possess one-quarter blood quantum for enrollment.
Because of his status as a descendant, Ramirez does not possess a tribal ID, something that saved another tribal member questioned by ICE in Minneapolis earlier, according to Red Lake tribal employees.
According to Joe Plummer, attorney for the Red Lake Nation, another tribal member had been questioned by ICE prior to this incident and was released when the individual produced a tribal ID.
A search by ICT of US federal inmate records and ICE detainees at Minnesotaโs three partner facilities did not produce responsive records regarding Ramirez.
On the south side of Minneapolis, community advocate Jearica Fountain, Karuk Tribe, said sheโs heard numerous reports of ICE encounters with Native Americans.
โNative Americans are being detained, but then no one knows where to find them to bring in verification to show theyโre Native American,โ Fountain said.
The United States Governmentโs searchable database of ICE detainees does not allow for the selection of โUnited Statesโ as an individual’s birth country, making it complicated and impossible to search for citizens detained.
On Wednesday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said at least 100 people have been detained from Minneapolis this week.
Little Earth housing
Fountain, a longtime resident of Minneapolis, said community members at Little Earth reported, and documented video, of at least three individuals being removed by ICE from the facility.
One community member told ICT the agents appeared to be targeting maintenance workers and parents dropping children off at the Little Earth Daycare center, a predominantly Native childcare center.
Minneapolisโs southside is also home to a significant number of Somali refugees, who have recently become the target of a federal probe into childcare fraud, prompting ICEโs recent visit to the city.
Following the killing of Renee Good, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz have requested the removal of ICE from the state.
Fountain said she fears that the Native community of south Minneapolis is being targeted by ICE.
โI wasnโt sure if their intention is to go after Native Americans specifically, or maybe there are outsiders who donโt know about the large Native American community here and what tribal identification looks like,โ she said.
South Minneapolis is a โcultural corridor,โ Fountain said. The area includes Indian Health Service facilities, the American Indian Center and other cultural programs.
Fountain began posting on Facebook about ICE presence in south Minneapolis following the raid of Little Earth. After her initial posts, Fountain said community members began to reach out for help and resources.
โThe day started with them going after the Native community and not long after that [the killing of Good] happened,โ Fountain said. โA white woman was (killed) and Native Americans were attacked, and that was a shock to the communityโฆ anyone can be targeted.”
Fountain said another large concern is that ICE agents are racially profiling Native people, mistaking them for central and South American immigrants.
In November, Leticia Jacobo, Salt River Pima, was mistakenly flagged as an undocumented immigrant by the Polk County Sheriff’s Department in central Iowa. Jacoboโs family feared the error occurred because of her surname, which is Spanish in origin.
Polk County Sheriff’s Department Officials said Jacoboโs flagging was a โclerical errorโ as officers were looking for another inmate by that name to slate for deportation.
Thereโs a lack of data on how many American Indian or Alaska Native people have been stopped, questioned or detained by ICE. This is partially due to a lack of reporting, but also the Homeland Security departmentโs consistent denial that any U.S. citizen has been detained.
Following the killing of Good and an ICE raid at a public high school, several tribal organizations in Minneapolis have closed for the remainder of the week.
As of Thursday evening, the Red Lake Nation, Fond Du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe and Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe have all issued statements condemning ICEโs actions and presence in Minneapolis.
In the wake of increased ICE presence in Native communities, the Mille Lacs Band said it will now be issuing tribal IDs to all members ages five and up. Previously IDs were only given to tribal members 12 and up, a spokesperson told ICT.
This is a developing story. Check for updates at www.ictnews.org.
Editorโs note: ICT identifies Ramirez as a descendant because his maternal great-grandparents were enrolled members of the Red Lake Nation.
