#buunygren — Public Fediverse posts

#NativeAmerican tribes say #ICE harassing members amid raids

by Erin Alberty, Russell Contreras, January 29, 2025

"Some Native American tribes say tribal members are being harassed by federal immigration agents, while others fear they could be wrongly caught up in immigration raids.

"The alarm comes as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) says its agents are arresting more than 1,000 undocumented immigrants a day, part of President Trump's push to deport 'millions' of people not authorized to stay in the U.S.

"#ImmigrationRaids in cities such as Chicago and Los Angeles — and Trump's new directives to allow searches in schools and churches in addition to workplaces and homes — have heightened concerns in communities across the country.

" 'My office has received multiple reports from Navajo citizens that they have had negative, and sometimes traumatizing, experiences with federal agents targeting undocumented immigrants,' Navajo President #BuuNygren said in a statement.

"#NavajoNation officials told CNN on Monday that at least 15 Indigenous people in the southwestern U.S. have reported being questioned or detained by immigration officers in the past week.

"The 17.5 million-acre Navajo Nation is in northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southeastern Utah. It's larger than 10 states.

"ICE offices in Utah and Washington, D.C., did not immediately respond to Axios' requests for comment.

"The #MescaleroApache Tribe in New Mexico announced that a member was confronted by ICE agents last week and was asked for ID — first in Spanish, although the member spoke English.

"The #SissetonWahpetonOyate of the #LakeTraverse Reservation in South Dakota said it was temporarily waiving all fees for issuing or replacing tribal IDs amid members' concerns about ICE encounters.

"#Ute Indian Tribe Business Committee — the tribe's governing body — promised in a statement Saturday to "aggressively defend our rights and interests." The tribe offered legal counsel to members who are "improperly detained or questioned," as did the #Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah.

"The #SanJuanSouthernPaiute Tribe, whose land crosses the Utah-Arizona border, advised its citizens to record encounters with ICE, ask for agents' badges and keep their doors closed and ask for a warrant if approached at home.
What they're saying: Trump's immigration executive orders have 'raised concern among our tribal members, particularly regarding the potential targeting of our community by immigration agents,' #ChippewaCree Tribe chairman Harat BaRete said in a statement. The north-central Montana tribe then released a set of guidelines urging members to remain silent, keep ID handy and report encounters to tribal officials.

" 'The #RosebudSioux Tribe is in the process of assessing the legal effects of the unlawful and unconstitutional Trump administration Executive Orders and will fiercely defend against any threat to the sovereignty,' the South Dakota tribe said in a statement.

"Since the Obama administration, U.S. agents have aggressively targeted human smuggling rings that use isolated #IndigenousLands to try to move undetected.

"Congress didn't grant citizenship to #NativeAmericans until 1924 — a development President Trump's lawyers cited in their attempt to justify his temporarily blocked executive order to #OverturnBirthrightCitizenship.

"The administration's attorneys last week invoked an 1884 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that denied citizenship to members of tribes to argue that 'birth in the United States does not by itself entitle a person to citizenship.'

"Some tribal leaders saw the argument as a threat against their members' U.S. citizenship."

Source:
https://www.axios.com/2025/01/29/native-american-immigration-raids-navajo-nation

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/S4abP

#RacialProfiling #ICESucks #ICERaids #LandBack #TrumpSucks #WhiteSupremacy #Colonialism #NativeAmericansWereHereFirst

Some good news! Though potential contamination from long-term storage needs to be addressed (what else is new).

#EPA to Relocate Toxic #UraniumMine Waste from #NavajoNation

By Neely Bardwell, January 08, 2025

"The Environmental Protection Agency will move #uranium mine waste from #ChurchrockNewMexico to the #RedRock regional landfill where it can be safely stored forever.

"The federal agency signed an action memo to transport radioactive waste at the Quivira Mining Co. Churchrock Mine to a disposal site at the Red Rock regional landfill about six miles east of the Village of Thoreau. The cleanup will begin in early 2025 and continue for 6-8 years.

"For the Red Water Pond Road Community Association (#RWPRCA), which has advocated for waste removal since 2006, the decision marks a significant shift in addressing #UraniumContamination on Navajo land.

"'Removing the mine waste from our community will protect our health and finally put us back on a positive track to #Hózhǫ (balance),' said Teracita Keyanna, RPWPRCA executive committee member. 'I think this decision empowers #grassroots organizations like ours and our allies to continue to advocate and educate to clean up hundreds of abandoned uranium mines that threaten our #Diné communities every day.'

"RWPRCA President Edith Hood said the community has dealt with the impact of uranium mining since the late 1960s. Commercial mining began at the site under #KerrMcGee Corporation, which later became the #QuiviraMiningCompany. The operation extracted an estimated 1.3 million tons of uranium ore before closing in 1986. The Navajo Nation currently has more than 520 documented #AbandonedMines, with no disposal facilities for uranium waste within 350 miles of #TribalLands.

"'Many of us suffer chronic health problems and a degraded homeland as a result,' Hood said. 'We advocate for a regional approach to addressing remediation of nearly 100 abandoned uranium mines in the Eastern Navajo Agency. We are committed to making sure the removal of mine waste from our community does not threaten the health and safety of our Diné neighbors.'

"Previous attempts to address the waste proved unsuccessful. In 2011 and 2013, the EPA and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved a plan to place 1 million cubic yards of waste from NECRM on top of the existing tailings pile located half a mile from RWPRC village. Effectively, neither of those wastes were removed from the communities.

"The #RedRockLandfill currently handles municipal waste from McKinley and Cibola counties and Navajo Nation communities as far away as Tuba City. The planned #UraniumDisposalCell will occupy a separate area of the 640-acre site adjacent to the shuttered #Escalante power plant.

"The Northwest New Mexico Regional Solid Waste Authority (#NNMRSWA), which owns the landfill, must show that its operations can protect #GroundWater, air and soil, while safeguarding public health for decades to come. The New Mexico Environment Department will oversee long-term monitoring of the site.

"Chris Shuey, who has documented mining and #milling impacts in the #Churchrock area for 40 years as an environmental health specialist at Southwest Research and Information Center in Albuquerque, said relocating uranium waste is essential for tribal communities.

"'Removing mine wastes from Navajo communities to engineered, regional disposal sites is a #PublicHealth imperative,' Shuey said, noting that more than half of all Navajo chapters have at least one source of unhealthy uranium exposure. 'The federal government must continue looking for suitable sites for long-term disposal of mine wastes to protect current and future Navajo populations.'

"'This decision will remove over 1 million cubic yards of waste that has haunted the #RedWaterPondRoad and #PipelineRoad communities for too long,' EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator Martha Guzman said in a statement.

"'This solution is a compromise that will get #RadioactiveWaste in this area off of the Navajo Nation as soon as possible,' Navajo Nation President #BuuNygren said in the EPA statement. 'It’s not everything the three affected communities would wish for but it’s action in the right direction now rather than in the future. Most importantly, this will protect our people from harmful exposure.'"

Source:
https://nativenewsonline.net/environment/epa-to-relocate-toxic-mine-waste-from-navajo-nation
#NoNukes #NoWar #NoMiningWithoutConsent #NoUraniumMining #UraniumMills #NukingTheNavajo #Genocide #WaterIsLife #NativeAmericanNews #HaulNo