Long Read

Immigrants or Refugees?

One day in the future, after we’re long gone and our names are forgotten, the remaining remnants of humanity will look back on this time in history and ask, “What the fuck did they think they were doing?” The horrors of this present reality give us a myopic view of our situation. We can’t conceive of everything going on, much less fight against it, because our vision is obstructed by the crimes being committed in front of our eyes. Our brains have difficulty processing a fraction of the news, which is exactly how Felonious Punk wants it.

Each morning for the past week, I’ve awakened to a list of headlines and have to ask myself the question, “Where do I start?” I’m spending more time reading the news now than I think I have since I was on the debate team in high school. Kronk, aka Pinball, curls up in my arms and we rock back and forth as I quietly repeat the mantra, “We’re going to be okay,” over and over. Eventually, even the cat doesn’t believe what I’m saying and leaps down to find a less disturbing place to nap.

Taking the dogs outside each morning gives me a unique perspective on our neighborhood. I see where the lights are on as people get ready to leave for work. I notice how many cars are in the driveways. I observe changes in the population with a certain amount of curiosity and concern. In this neighborhood, people rarely leave because their lives have suddenly gotten better. When people move, it tends to be because their lives have been turned upside down. Loss of employment, divorce, and the ill health of a relative are among the top reasons for turnover.

Now, we can add fear to that list. On Sunday, I mentioned a nearby multigenerational family. The elder generation has owned their home for over 30 years. They’re all US citizens, but they’re afraid. So afraid, that over the weekend, the adult children and grandchildren packed everything up and moved. The yard that was once full of cars is now empty. Only Dad’s old work van sits in the drive. The chickens are gone. The toys are gone. I’m not even sure that the elder women are still there. I’ve not seen them, just Dad. I don’t know where they’ve gone, but I know they were all scared.

Two doors down in the other direction sits a rental house that, until last week, was occupied by four young Latino men. Now, that number is down to two. I have some rapport with them, so I asked where they’d gone. The answer was predictable. “They’re like everyone else, man, scared of ICE. They’ve got their papers but no one feels like that’s enough, you know?”

Yesterday afternoon, Jenn sent me a text, “If you haven’t already seen, look up Buu Nygran’s statement to/for the Navajo Nation. There have been reports of native people being harassed by ICE.” That one hadn’t popped up in my alerts yet (it would later), so I took to searching. Sure enough, there it was: Navajo Nation leaders raise alarm over reports of Indigenous people being questioned and detained during immigration sweeps. In the past week, at least 15 Indigenous people in Arizona and New Mexico have been stopped at their homes and workplaces, questioned or detained by federal law enforcement, and asked to produce proof of citizenship. In at least one case, a woman says she was eventually permitted to use her cell phone and text family members, who sent her a photo of her Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood (CDIB). Only then was she allowed to leave.

Is this racist? Oh hell, yeah! Legally, any of the following qualifies as proof of citizenship:

• Birth certificate: Issued by the state, county, or city of birth, this document should include the applicant’s name, date of birth, place of birth, and the names of their parents. It should also have the registrar’s signature, the date it was filed, and the seal or stamp of the issuing authority. 
• Naturalization certificate: Issued to people who became U.S. citizens after age 18 through naturalization. 
• U.S. passport: A valid or expired U.S. passport is proof of citizenship. 
• Certificate of citizenship: Issued by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to people who became U.S. citizens through birth, naturalization, or other means. 
• Enhanced REAL-ID license: This license can also be used as proof of U.S. citizenship. 
• U.S. passport card: A wallet-sized, plastic card that serves as proof of citizenship and identity. 

Do you see any mention of a CDIB? No. Does every Indigenous person have a CDIB? No, and there’s a damn good reason why. A CDIB requires that someone in one’s ancestral lineage have a Dawes roll number. The Dawes Act of 1887 was the redistribution of Tribal lands that eventually led to the mass removal of Indigenous people from their native place of residence, a horrible experience we know as the Trail of Tears. As many as 4,000 Indigenous people died on that trip to Oklahoma.

I don’t have a CDIB or a Dawes roll number. No one in our family does or ever has. My mother was very clear as to why. The initial ‘accounting’ of tribal members was what allowed them to be rounded up by government troops under the authority of President Andrew Jackson. After settling in what is now Southeastern Oklahoma, my mother’s great-grandparents decided that there was no way in hell they were going to let themselves be moved like that again. They refused to sign the rolls, and at times even refused to identify as Cherokee to avoid the overt racism and oppression that came with the label.

Even now, the Cherokee are learning that they are better off taking care of themselves rather than participating too strongly in the federal government. Just this past week, Principal Chief Chuck Hoskins, Jr. proposed the construction and creation of a new Cherokee Nation Justice Center based in Tahlequah, OK. This would allow tribe members to receive a level of justice that respects their culture without treating them like foreigners on their own land. This is a massive step forward for all Indigenous peoples. I can’t help but believe that the Spirit of the late Principal Chief Wilma Mankiller smiles approvingly on this proposal. She would be quite happy to see the tribe extending its independence in such a manner.

The problem is that not all the tribes are as organized and self-governing as the Cherokee, the Dakota, and Diné/Navajo. Some tribes, such as the once great Sac and Fox, are all but gone. The Pottowatamie and Miami people that once dominated what is now Indiana are scattered and unorganized. Even the great Choctaw nation lacks the same level of tribal governance as their Cherokee neighbors. That leaves their members at the mercy of a racist federal organization that looks first at skin color and reacts based on a split-second judgment rather than actual evidence.

It’s not that this immigration crackdown is without resistance. Quakers sued the federal government yesterday over whether immigration officians can enter a house of worship to detain and remove immigrants. Quakers strongly believe that they are required to accept and protect anyone who comes to them. While I’m not immediately aware of any Latinx or Indigenous Quaker groups, the point still stands that places of worship have always been able to provide sanctuary to anyone who needs it, regardless of the country or its laws.

Meanwhile, law enforcement officials in Hamilton County, IN, just to the North of Indy, announced yesterday that they are forming an Immigration Commission for the express purpose of working with ICE and other immigration officials. They’re claiming that this is a ‘public safety’ issue, but everyone who is familiar with the county that’s home to such restrictive enclaves as Carmel, Fishers, and Noblesville know damn good and well that this is pure racism. This has been the case as long as I’ve lived up here (20 years in April). Driving through Carmel for the first time, I couldn’t help asking the question, “Where are all the non-white people?” The truth is, many people of color stay away from Hamilton County for fear of being profiled, stopped, and arrested on imaginary charges. I can’t begin to count the number of people I know who refuse to work in the county for fear that they’ll be stopped either going to or coming from their place of employment. Here, ‘Immigration Crackdown’ is nothing more than a cover for the severe racism that has made the county infamous.

At the same time, the idiotic piece of trash that serves as Oklahoma’s Education Secretary proposed an ordinance yesterday that would require parents to prove citizenship when enrolling their children in school. Oklahoma City Public Schools, one of the state’s largest districts with a hispanic student population of 57%, promptly announced that under no circumstances would they enforce the measure, even if it makes its way through the state legislature. The Constitution guarantees that all children recieve a public education. There are no caveats to that law, anywhere, ever.

This morning, newly-installed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem took part in an immigration enforcement operation in New York City. Are we surprised? Not really. One might even consider it an improvement over Dr. Phil being imbedded with ICE raids in Chicago. Yeah, that really happened. That whole ‘nice guy’ thing on Dr. Phil’s TV show was just an act. He’s as racist as the rest of them.

Yes, I’m throwing the word racist around quite a bit. Reality check: What is now known as the United States was initially settled by a group of religious extremists who, from the moment they set foot off the Mayflower, saw the Indigenous people here as ‘savages’. They had no moral problem with stealing their land and murdering them by the thousands. They even passed laws to justify their racism. The United States has always been racist. There has never been a moment in its history where they weren’t racist. Immigration is simply the latest excuse for people of purely European decent to attempt justification for their imperialistic motives.

It was a little before 6:00 last evening when Kat messaged me, “G is trying to get home.” He had fallen asleep on the bus and missed his stop by about three miles. When he did get off the bus and tried catching one coming back this direction, it promptly broke down, as IndyGo buses often do. He decided he’d walk the bus route in an attempt to get home.

I panicked. It was dark and cold. I don’t have a vehicle. I can’t drive (I bump into things). I don’t have enough cash in my bank account to send him an Uber or Lift. There was nothing I could do to keep him safe. Kat and Tipper were having some mother/daughter time downtown. They quickly pulled their things together and took off to try and find G.

G’s phone died. He has a mobile power bank, but even that takes some time to charge the phone once it’s dead. When he finally could, he called his mom and told her where he was. He was going to wrong direction! He was already another mile further from home than when he started! Kat sent him some money and told him to wait at a nearby Starbucks until she could get to him.

Was he ever in any danger? He had walked across the 38th street bridge that crosses I-465. Even in daylight, that’s a frightening experience. Add the fact that it was dark and he wears a large black coat with the hood up and his headphones on, and I think most parents can appreciate my concern. Now, toss in the current atmosphere where people get stopped without reason. I was deeply relieved when he finally came crashing through the back door.

This whole ‘immigration crackdown’ thing is nothing more than yet another attempt on the part of the federal government to justify the racism that has been systemic from the very beginning. It’s not only illegal, but immoral in every way thinkable. That any member of the government, let alone the president, would support such a policy is a reflective of the European imperialistic mindset that destroys every vibrant and colorful culture it encounters.

WE ARE NOT IMMIGRANTS. Our ancestors lived on this land some 60,000 years before the first European ever knew that the land existed! The federal government has neither warrant nor reason to detain, question, remove, or oppress Indigenous peoples from any part of North America. That many South American cultures are extensions of the same people that settled North America pulls them into the same population for whom this land is a birthright.

Europeans are the migrants. If they don’t like us being here, they are more than welcome to go back where they came from. I’m sure the Air Force still has plenty of handcuffs for the ride back.