Tribal leaders in Wyoming warn members to carry ID amid fears of harassment by immigration enforcers

Northern Arapaho leaders are advising tribal members to carry government IDs when they leave home out of concern they may get profiled and caught up in the Trump administration’s growing deportation dragnet. 

Eastern Shoshone leaders published their own warning early Monday evening.

In a letter posted Sunday to social media, the Northern Arapaho Business Council recommended tribal members carry identification, “at all times when in public in order to prevent possible questioning or detention by U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.” 

The Business Council also directed the Northern Arapaho Enrollment Department to issue free tribal identification cards to enrolled members. “We strongly urge that you have Tribal ID for yourself, your children and your entire family,” the business council wrote in its letter.

The Wind River Indian Reservation’s other governing body, the Eastern Shoshone Business Council, also waived its fee for new tribal identification cards, in the light of “growing fears,” from its members, that body wrote in its own letter.

 “We plan to work diligently through the established government-to-government relationships we have fostered and further address any challenges with this new U.S. administration,” the letter read.

Wyoming House Rep. Ivan Posey, who belongs to the tribe but does not speak for its government, said the warnings were warranted. 

“Tribal people, as well as our brothers and sisters from the south, are brown,” Posey told WyoFile. As the newly inaugurated President Donald Trump pushes his aggressive deportation agenda, racial profiling by federal law enforcement is an increasing worry for communities of color.

“It causes a concern about what means they’ll use to interpret this immigration law enforcement,” Posey said. “It almost comes down to racial profiling. We thought we were past that decades ago. With the efforts of some in government, that exercise will become more common, unfortunately.” 

A spokesperson in ICE’s Denver office did not respond to a WyoFile request for comment. 

In Sunday’s letter, the Northern Arapaho Business Council said tribal officials had met with a representative of the Bureau of Indian Affairs policing division and would continue to express concern to state and federal authorities. “These are uncertain times,” the letter concluded, “but the Northern Arapaho Tribe and its people will endure.”

WyoFile sought comment from Gov. Mark Gordon’s office as well as U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, historically an advocate for Wyoming’s federally recognized tribes in Washington D.C. Through a spokesperson, Gordon declined to comment. As of publication time, WyoFile had not received a response from Barrasso, but will update this story if contacted. 

Similar warnings, similar concerns

At least two tribal governments in Montana also warned their members to start carrying tribal identifications, according to a report in The Missoulian. Officials with the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux tribal government described an uptick in people showing up to receive such cards as fear of harassment by authorities grew, that newspaper reported.

The Northern Arapaho Business Council cited concern from its members, as well as “reports nationally of Native individuals being hassled and even detained by federal immigration authorities,” as motivation for Sunday’s letter. 

The “deeply troubling” reports cited in the letter could be a reference to news reports out of Arizona. Officials from the Navajo Nation, whose reservation falls within Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, say they have been contacted by tribal members who were detained by ICE in Phoenix, according to reporting by the Arizona Republic. 

Navajo Nation officials described at least 15 tribal members being questioned or detained during ICE raids on workplaces and other enforcement actions in Arizona and New Mexico, CNN reported Monday.

The Eastern Shoshone Business Council asked its members to “educate themselves through reliable sources,” and carry their ID cards.

Many Wyoming lawmakers and some sheriffs would like to see state law enforcement play a more active role in immigration enforcement, though those laws are federal. Lawmakers have brought a series of bills seeking to force sheriffs to cooperate with the federal government, and in at least one case, legislation that would require Wyoming law enforcement to investigate people’s immigration status. 

Those bills are in various stages of the legislative process. Meanwhile, a number of Wyoming sheriffs are pursuing agreements with the federal government on their own that would make their county jails a more streamlined piece of the federal government’s deportation machinery.