Clarence Page: ICE has been accused of profiling Native Americans. What a cruel irony. |
In a nation as diverse as ours, immigration enforcement inevitably tests whether equal protection means what it says. Some tribal leaders in the Upper Midwest say that test is being failed in the wake of the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis on Jan. 7.
By the end of the week, claims of aggressive immigration enforcement actions, including door-to-door operations in some neighborhoods, poured in concerning agents not only tracking down those without legal status to reside in the U.S. but also questioning and detaining others, whether or not they were legal residents or citizens. Social media platforms were filled with video clips not only of Good’s killing but also of federal agents doing sidewalk and parking lot interrogations of Black, Latino and other nonwhite residents. Masked and kitted out for combat, the agents give the impression of being a law unto themselves as they demand to see identification papers.
On Jan. 10, the tribal governing board of the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, based in northern Wisconsin, stated it was “closely monitoring recent events that took........