PINE RIDGE, SD — In a Facebook post today, Oglala Sioux Tribe President Frank Star Comes Out posted an amended memorandum regarding the detention of Oglala Tribal Members, updating a memorandum originally posted on Tuesday which appears to have caused confusion among members of the community.
OST officials reached out to ICE following the unlawful detainment of four Native men in Minneapolis, and demanded their release (as Native Americans are legal US Citizens, ICE had no authority to detain them). ICE has not publicly released information on these men, however the initial memorandum seemed to indicate that the agency had attempted to issue an ultimatum – information in exchange for cooperation.
Pres. Star Comes Out clarified this misunderstanding today however, saying “We are aware that some people have misinterpreted and misrepresented that version to suggest that federal officials were willing to provide information to the Tribe only if the Tribe entered into an immigration enforcement agreement. That was not the case, and the Tribe did not say or suggest that it was. We want to set the record straight“.
The updated memorandum maintains that the OST has no plans of entering a 287(g) relationship with immigration enforcement. Additionally, it restates the number of agreements between tribal nations and the US government, as well as legal precedent which would make the detaining of tribal members specifically a treaty violation, making the agency liable to legal retaliation.
