1. United States
2. Texas
3. Letter

I am writing to urge you to take immediate action to protect Indigenous North Americans from deportation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The federal government's deportation of Native people from their ancestral homelands represents a profound injustice that contradicts the sovereignty and rights of Indigenous communities. Indigenous peoples are the original inhabitants of this continent, with ties to these lands that predate the formation of the United States by thousands of years. Deporting Native North Americans ignores the government's trust responsibility to tribal nations and violates the principles established through centuries of treaties and legal precedent. The Jay Treaty of 1794, for example, explicitly recognizes the right of Indigenous peoples to freely cross the border between the United States and Canada, yet ICE continues to detain and deport Native individuals without regard for these protections. This issue has direct implications for Indigenous communities in Idaho and across the Mountain West. Programs like Our Living Lands, a collaborative effort between the Mountain West News Bureau, Native Public Media, and Koahnic Broadcast Corporation, highlight the critical challenges Indigenous communities already face, particularly regarding climate change and environmental justice. Adding the threat of deportation compounds these existing hardships and undermines tribal sovereignty. The deportation of Indigenous people also disrupts families, severs cultural connections, and damages the social fabric of tribal communities. Many Native individuals lack documentation not because they entered the country illegally, but because of systemic barriers and the complex history of federal Indian policy that has often failed to recognize Indigenous citizenship rights properly. I urge you to introduce or support legislation that explicitly protects Indigenous North Americans from deportation and ensures ICE respects tribal sovereignty and treaty rights. Additionally, please advocate for training programs within immigration enforcement agencies to recognize and honor the unique legal status of Indigenous peoples. Our government must uphold its obligations to Native communities rather than perpetuating historical injustices through modern immigration enforcement.