Elaine Miles
Posted Dec. 11, 2025
As you may have heard, I was recently apprehended and degraded by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents at a bus stop in Seattle. Out of nowhere, while I was out taking care of errands in the city, a masked mob of ICE agents approached me and asked me if I was a legal citizen, demanding a form of identification. So, I shared my tribal identification card as an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.
I was then questioned further and told that my ID card was fake. Because we know they are targeting our relatives south of the border, I then said, “Do I sound Mexican to you?” I was then forced to call the tribal office in order to avoid detention. Ever since this encounter started making news, I’ve received death threats and demeaning comments accusing me of seeking attention. But let me be clear: This is the last thing I would like to receive attention for, and I write to you today to share the truth about the situation.
I cannot overstate how unfortunate and disturbing it is that Indigenous people are apprehended and subjected to racist profiling and violent behavior by the Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) and its secretary, Kristi Noem.
The experience was sudden, swift, scary and had me extremely upset — so, I posted it on my social media. That’s when Darren Thompson of the Lakota People’s Law Project / Sacred Defense Fund contacted me and notified me he would share my comments on Lakota Law’s social channels. Quickly thereafter, media publications in radio, news, and television began to ask me to talk about what happened. Thankfully, with the help of the Lakota People’s Law Project / Sacred Defense Fund, I have been interviewing with different news sources for the last two weeks.
On Dec. 5, Darren and I appeared on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper” to discuss the illegal ICE raids that put people of color in the crosshairs, including the targeting of Indigenous people. I cannot overstate how unfortunate and disturbing it is that Indigenous people are apprehended and subjected to racist profiling and violent behavior by the Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) and its secretary, Kristi Noem.
Noem claims to have long ties and good relations with tribes from her tenure as the former governor of the State of South Dakota. As a friend to Lakota Law, you surely remember her real history there. How can we forget that every tribe in the state banished Noem from tribal lands because of her disparaging comments that tribal leaders in South Dakota were allegedly in partnership with Mexican drug cartels? Now she’s part of a host of unqualified, dangerous people in charge of key federal departments.
We’re not even done with year one of the second Trump administration, and our communities have been affected in immeasurable ways. The Arctic Circle has been cleared to drill, the mandated reporting of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People has been eliminated from all federal websites, and nearly all programs that fund tribes have been cut. Native people deserve better than this. We all do.
Tahts lahayn oykalo (good day everyone) — and thank you for supporting Indigenous rights.
Elaine Miles, via Lakota People’s Law Project.
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