The Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center and community group Nenookaasi Ozhige opened a low-barrier warming shelter in the Phillips neighborhood last Tuesday. The warming center is also helping guests get tribal IDs and replacement documents.  

This comes after four men from the Oglala Sioux Tribe were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents two weeks ago. Three of the four members were transferred to a moratorium in Fort Snelling, reported AP News. 

Ruth Buffalo, the CEO of the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center, said they have been trying to lay low after seeing ICE agents on their security cameras a few times this month.

“It’s the facts of what we are seeing around us in the neighborhood that has everybody on high alert,” Buffalo said.

Native Americans are U.S. citizens under federal law. Native people can get tribal identification for their tribe from the separate Native American Tribes enrollment offices.

A tribal identification card is an official tribal or community membership document issued by federally recognized Native American tribes. Along with identifying the tribe the person descends from, IDs can be used for travelling domestically. 

Buffalo said she is worried Operation Metro Surge will add to ongoing existing issues within Black and brown communities, specifically the trauma experienced from heightened levels of targeted violence of certain individuals.

“We worry about our most vulnerable and where they are ending up. Has the number of missing and murdered persons increased?” Buffalo said.

Buffalo said scammers can take advantage of people looking for tribal IDs, due to fears of being detained. Tribal IDs can be targeted by scammers and human traffickers because those IDs help fraudulent providers receive higher Medicaid reimbursement rates.  

“There’s so much chaos right now that that’s been a concern of like, who’s holding the ongoing predators accountable. We know that there’s also bad actors who continue to target our organization because we help women,” Buffalo said.

Sidney Kingbird-Haugen, a University of Minnesota sophomore and a member of the Red Lake Band of Ojibwe, has his Tribal ID. Kingbird-Haugen said he talked to his family about keeping it on him as he went back to school.

Kingbird-Haugen said the ID gives him a sense of security right now. ​

“I think that would definitely provide extra security, and I think a lot of people are making sure that there is at least a baseline for their protection, so if they ever do happen to get racially profiled for their safety,” Kingbird-Haugen said.

Buffalo said there should be a pause to ICE agents entering the state, and federal officers need to be educated on how to investigate Native Americans.

“This is just bare, the basic education that should be across the board mainstream of American Indians and assist the unfortunate, but it’s very telling of the work that needs to be done to educate federal agencies from preventing more harm being done to innocent communities,” Buffalo said.