Republicans & ICE: Deport Native Americans?!

Apparently, ICE is still persistently trying to ‘deport’ Native Americans?!

ICE vs Native Americans

Inveterate readers of this Crummy Little Blog That Nobody Reads (CLBTNR) will remember when we wrote about attempts by armed Trump advocates to harass Arizona state representative Eric Descheenie, who is Navajo. ^[1] That was before ICE, so it was just pure grass-roots Republican racism that led them to harass any brown-skinned legislators and legislative assistants. The sheer depth of ignorance of someone who does not realize Native Americans have superior rights to be here than the rest of us calls into sharp relief the venomous racism involved.

Lest you think that was an infrequent outlier, the racist policies of ICE continue. And, in some cases, with political backing.

Consider the case of Texas politician Bo French. ^[2] (NB: I’m using the fact-checking site Snopes here as primary source, to save you the trouble of verifying all of this venom.)

He’s quite a piece of work: according to Snopes, he wants to deport not only immigrants, but Native Americans whom he calls “third world savages”:
He’s used the phrase “third world savages” repeatedly for Afghan asylum seekers, Muslims, and Native Americans. In particular, he calls for denaturalizing Native Americans to strip their US birthright citizenship and deporting them to… somewhere:

Since we are going to denaturalize and deport all the third world savages who hate our country, I am calling for adding these third world savages, who we conquered, then bizarrely let have a nation inside our nation, to the list.

He seems to feel that native-born US citizens can be denaturalized, which is utterly and completely false. For example, he referred to Texas Tribune reporter Carlos Noguera Ramos as a “soon to be deported journalist”. Noguera Ramos was born in Puerto Rico, and is thus an American citizen by inalienable birthright.

This sort of position is not bound by any principle of law; it’s just stupidly vomiting up racist venom against anyone with darker skin. (Unsurprisingly, French has also claimed in the past that voting machines somehow magically flipped Trump votes to Harris; these conspiracies all seem to be of a piece.)

Now, you could just say argue this is some obscure Republican in Texas, and that of course I could cherry-pick the news to find the worst of the worst. So I looked into the background news starting in 2026 to see if there are other reports of attempts to intimidate, detain, or even deport Native Americans. Since the largest Native American populations are in the west, most of the hits are from smaller outlets in the west.

But there are quite a few! Consider just a few of the many examples reporting on ICE and Native Americans:

• Rebecca Tallent, reporting in the Idaho Capital Sun ^[3], notes that ICE is arresting and detaining Native Americans, so their tribal leaders counsel always carrying their tribal IDs. However, many ICE agents apparently are so dirt-ignorant that they don’t know what a tribal ID is, and reject them as “fake”.

  This has occurred in Minnesota, Wisconsin, South Dakota, North Dakota, Washington, Arizona, and New Mexico. It’s obviously not an isolated event due to a few bad ICE officers; it is policy.

  Many tribes are now forbidding ICE from entering tribal areas unless they have judicial-signed search warrants. This is, of course, their legal right. Whether ICE will respect this, or simply beat, shoot, and intimidate their way in anyway remains to be seen. ICE is, after all, not exactly known for adherence to law.

  As Tallent summarizes:

  If the true goal of these actions is to reduce the immigrant population, why are they also arresting and detaining those whose ancestors were here first?

• Rep Heather Keeler (DFL - Moorhead), a member of the Minnesota legislature, also wrote recently about the racial targeting of Native Americans by ICE, on behalf of the Native American Caucus in the legislature. ^[4]

  ICE has been detaining Native Americans, particularly those in poverty, despite their clear tribal identification. Keeler points out that this is an assault against another nation:

  Native peoples are Indigenous to this country, existing on this continent for thousands of years before the colonization of this nation – rendering deportation impossible and absurd. Snatching a Native person off the street is not a reckless mistake – it’s a direct assault on Indigenous sovereignty and due process. Native Americans are citizens by law, history, and treaty.

  The detention of Native peoples in Minnesota follows a disturbing nationwide pattern by ICE agents: targeting immigrants and civilians, seizing American Indian persons off the street, ignoring their clear identification as Tribal members, and detaining them by ruthless force.

  They have a remarkably sensible proposal to remedy the situation:

  We demand an immediate halt to ICE for good, an end to the discriminatory practices, and a comprehensive, transparent investigation of ICE and its accomplices across the system.

  Alas, that will require (a) a change in our government, and (b) a new government with sufficient spine to prosecute ruthlessly the criminal behavior of this government. We can hope, but the time for that is not yet near.

• Michael Klinski, writing for South Dakota News Watch, does significant fact-checking to verify that this misbehavior by ICE is actually happening. ^[5]

  He points out that the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 granted citizenship to all Native Americans in the US. They are now birthright citizens, with inalienable citizenship that cannot be “denaturalized”, no matter what Republican fantasies say.

  He documents a number of abusive interrogations, beatings, detentions, and near deportations:

  The Oglala Sioux Tribe, which is headquartered in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, said four tribal members were detained Friday in Minneapolis, according to a statement.

  The day before, a 20-year-old Red Lake Nation descendant said he was struck on his face and neck by ICE agents even though he said he told them he was an American citizen.

  In Iowa, an Arizona tribal member was almost deported after she was turned over to an ICE detainer by mistake in November.

  The Navajo Nation said dozens of Native Americans had been questioned or detained, including one woman who said ICE agents thought her federal ID was fake.

There are many other such sources saying similar things.

And, of course, the rot runs deep: Rep Ogles (R-TN) is proposing law changes so he can “start denaturalizing these people like Mamdani”. Yes, he wants to denaturalize and deport the new mayor of New York City, who has committed the apparent sins of being a popular elected liberal, a racial minority, and a naturalized citizen:

Clearly, they are totally unconstrained by shame and totally driven by their racist hatred.

The Weekend Conclusion

We are hostage to those who are happy to carry out policies of venomous racism and rank stupidity. Do not succumb to Stockholm Syndrome, the bane of hostages.

(Ceterum censeo, Trump incarceranda est!)

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Notes & References

1: Weekend Editor, “Xenophobia Agonistes: Fascism & Immigration at Peak Absurdity”, Some Weekend Reading blog, 2024-Mar-06. ↩

2: A Rascouët-Paz, “Texas GOP candidate Bo French called for deporting several Native Americans”, Snopes, 2026-Feb-19. ↩

3: R Tallent, “For Indigenous Americans it’s unthinkable, but true. ICE is arresting, detaining Native Americans.”, Idaho Capital Sun, 2026-Feb-10. ↩

4: H Keeler, “Native American Caucus Members Condemns Detainment and Racial Targeting of Native Americans by ICE”, Minnesota House of Representatives Legislative News and Views, 2026-Jan-11. ↩

5: M Klinski, “Fact brief: Have ICE agents detained Native Americans?”, South Dakota News Watch, 2026-Jan-13. ↩