Tribal IDs become shield as ICE launches record raids

Native communities across the United States are rushing to secure tribal identification cards as protection from immigration raids that many fear blur the line between border enforcement and racial profiling.

In the Twin Cities, including Minneapolis, a senior official from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently announced what he called the agency’s “largest immigration operation ever”. More than 3,400 people have been arrested, with around 2,000 ICE officers and 1,000 Border Patrol agents deployed.

Because Native people are often misidentified as migrants, dozens of tribal governments are waiving application fees, lowering age limits – in some cases to as young as five – and speeding up processing so citizens can carry photo IDs at all times. It is the first time tribal cards have been widely used as proof of U.S. citizenship and a shield against federal officers.

“As the first people of this land, there’s no reason why Native Americans should have their citizenship questioned,” a senior lawyer with the Native American Rights Fund said. Her organisation has documented cases of tribal citizens stopped, detained or told their IDs look fake.

The tensions have been sharpened by a 2025 order from the U.S. Supreme Court that lifted limits on immigration sweeps in Los Angeles, allowing agents to consider factors such as apparent race or ethnicity, language, workplace and location when deciding whom to stop. Civil rights groups say the decision “opens the door” to racial profiling, a concern echoed by legal commentators analysing the Noem v Vasquez Perdomo case.

Native leaders have responded in different ways. Some tribal governments have advised citizens to keep their IDs with them at all times, while at least one large reservation in the northern Plains has formally banned ICE from operating on its land after reports of citizens being detained.

As Native communities on both sides of the Pacific grapple with unequal policing and documentation demands, the scramble for tribal IDs in the U.S. is the latest reminder that many Indigenous people still have to prove they belong on their own land.