The Respect Tribal IDs Act would require DHS, in coordination with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Tribal Nations, to develop standardized training for officers and employees involved in immigration enforcement. The training would include how to identify Tribal documents, when Tribal IDs qualify as proof of U.S. citizenship, proper protocols for interacting with enrolled Tribal members, and the federal government’s trust responsibility to Tribal Nations.
Will require DHS, in coordination with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Tribal Nations, to develop standardized training for immigration enforcement personnel on recognizing Tribal identification documents and proper protocols with Tribal citizens.
Occurrences
Evidence
The article says the bipartisan Respect Tribal IDs Act was introduced in mid-May by Teresa Leger Fernandez, Sharice Davids, Don Bacon, and Sen. Ben Ray Luján to train DHS agents to recognize tribal IDs; it also notes that ICE agents still are not trained to recognize them and that no concrete preventive measures have been implemented yet.
AP reported that tribal citizens detained by ICE were being held in an immigration facility, and that Indigenous rights groups had set up places in Minneapolis where tribal citizens could apply for tribal ID cards because encounters with ICE continued to raise identification problems.
Assessments
Teresa Leger Fernandez helped introduce the Respect Tribal IDs Act, which is a real legislative effort toward the promised DHS training. But the evidence provided shows only introduction, not enactment or implementation, and says ICE agents still were not trained and the problem remained unresolved. That is a serious attempt without delivery, so this is best judged as never fulfilled in the current term.