MINNEAPOLIS - Indigenous leaders and community members in the Twin Cities are urging Congress to impose clear limits and accountability measures on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), warning that expanded enforcement has intensified fear, confusion, and risk for Native residents and other communities of color.
The Minneapolis–St. Paul Native community includes tribal citizens from many Nations across the United States, shaped in part by the federal Relocation Era that pushed Native people into urban centers. Today, the Twin Cities area is estimated to be home to about 35,000 Native Americans, making the region one of the largest urban Native populations in the country.
Community members interviewed in the report describe heightened anxiety tied to aggressive enforcement actions, including sweeps, detentions, and confusion over who is being taken and where people are being held. Some residents say individuals have “vanished” from federal records, escalating fear across neighborhoods.
After two reported deaths involving federal immigration officers in Minneapolis in January, organizers say the community response shifted from concern to urgent self-protection, including neighborhood patrols in areas with high Native residency.
A Feb. 5, 2026 NPR/PBS News/Marist Poll found that 65% of Americans believe ICE has “gone too far” in enforcing immigration laws, and 62% say ICE’s actions are making Americans less safe.
Congress is set to decide upcoming funding levels for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE. Advocates argue that additional funding without enforceable safeguards increases the risk of more harm and deeper distrust between communities and the federal government.
The proposals highlighted include practical rules that communities say would reduce abuse and improve transparency, such as:
- Requiring judicial warrants to enter private property
- Banning masks or face coverings that hide an agent’s identity
- Requiring visible ID on uniforms and verbal identification upon request
- Protecting sensitive locations (schools, churches, hospitals, childcare, polling sites)
- Ending racial profiling and limiting stops based on race, language, or appearance
- Applying clear use-of-force standards consistent with ordinary policing rules
- Using body-worn cameras to document public interactions
For Native Nations and Native people living in cities, safety is not only about crime statistics. It is about whether families can move through daily life without being profiled, threatened, or swept up in enforcement that ignores local reality, tribal citizenship, and community stability.
Empower Native Voice will continue to track how policy decisions impact Native families and urban Native communities, and we will keep centering lived experience, accountability, and dignity.