At this point, it’s no secret that ICE’s main objective is to purge the United States of brown-skinned men, women and children. Regardless of citizen status, many green card-holding migrants have gotten swept up in Donald Trump and Stephen Miller’s ethnic alleged cleansing of America.
Now with the Supreme Court giving ICE agents the green light to racially profile citizens in said operation, even Native Americans are seemingly fair game to be deported. ICE nearly deported a member of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community in Arizona for looking like a Latina.
According to Newsweek, 24-year-old Leticia Jacobo became the latest Native American to find themselves under the scrutiny of ICE agents for appearing to be a Latina, but in this particular case, she was detained and almost deported after being arrested in Polk County Jail in Des Moines, Iowa, where she currently lives. It wasn’t until her mother provided her birth certificate proving that she was born in Arizona that Jacobo was ultimately released by “authorities.”
Newsweek reports:
Polk County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Mark Chance told the Arizona Mirror that the ICE detainer was issued in error, explaining that it had been intended for a different person booked at the jail at the same time but was incorrectly assigned to Jacobo’s records, the Arizona Mirror reported.
Polk County Jail participates in the 287(g) program with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which allows certain local police officers and sheriff’s deputies to carry out specific immigration enforcement tasks in coordination with ICE. Deputies trained under the program can verify citizenship status, compare biographic information against federal databases, and prepare immigration-related paperwork. They can also issue ICE detainers, which permit a person in custody to be held for up to 48 hours beyond their scheduled release so ICE can take custody. The program is intended to support federal immigration enforcement by providing additional local resources.
Jacobo’s aunt told the Arizona Mirror that her niece had been subjected to discrimination, at least to some degree, noting that Jacobo had previously been booked at the same facility and that her tribal membership was clearly documented.
And MAGA supporters still insist that the ICE raids aren’t about race.
“I do want to say that it’s racial profiling because she’s been there before, they have a rap sheet on her—why would they make a mistake with someone that’s constantly coming in?” Maria Nunez, Burns’ sister, told the outlet.
Naturally, Jacobo’s family is weighing legal action, but with the way that this current Trump administration defends the illegal actions that ICE takes to carry out what many feel is a fascist agenda, justice for the hundreds of American citizens and migrants who have a bone to pick with ICE may take a long while.
