In the days following U.S. President Donald Trump's 2025 inauguration, claims spread online that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — tasked with following through on a Trump campaign promise of mass deportations — had detained Native Americans.
Snopes readers emailed to ask whether the immigration law enforcement agency had targeted Native Americans. They also asked about reasons behind this effort. The rumor spread on social media, including TikTok (archived), X (archived), Bluesky, Reddit, Instagram and Facebook. News outlets including CNN, the New Mexico Political Report, and Axios published reports that ICE was detaining members of the Navajo and Apache tribes.
Officials of some Native American nations urged their citizens to carry tribal identification documents in case they encountered the ICE agents. They also mentioned confrontations between agents and some of their citizens and expressed concern for citizens who live outside of reservations and whose IDs ICE does not recognize as proof of U.S. citizenship.
For example, the Navajo Nation Council released a statement on Jan. 23, 2025, describing an incident in which ICE had detained a citizen for nine hours. This person was reportedly not the only one who had been targeted. The statement read:
Despite possessing Certificates of Indian Blood (CIBs) and state-issued IDs, several individuals have been detained or questioned by ICE agents who do not recognize these documents as valid proof of citizenship.
The statement added that Navajo Nation Council Speaker Crystalyne Curley had called on Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren to support legislation that would "enhance" IDs for the nation.
Meanwhile, Nygren posted on X about the problem starting on Jan. 22, 2025, two days after Trump's inauguration. In his first post about the matter (archived), he mentioned "unconfirmed reports of Diné relatives being questioned or detained," using the word by which Navajo people designate themselves. On Jan. 23, the same day the Navajo Nation Council released its statement, Nygren posted on X (archived) that there had been "zero confirmed cases regarding ICE detentions of Navajo citizens," contradicting the council's assertions.
However on Jan. 24, Nygren's office released a statement in which he said he had received such reports:
My office has received multiple reports from Navajo citizens that they have had negative, and sometimes traumatizing, experiences with federal agents targeting undocumented immigrants in the Southwest.
On Jan. 25, he posted once again (archived), saying his office had "only received a few unconfirmed reports." Snopes contacted both the Navajo Nation Council and Nygren's office to ask whether they had more details about the situation and will update this report if they reply.
Separately, the Mescalero Apache Tribe in New Mexico released a statement on Jan. 23, 2025, describing one incident in which ICE agents had questioned a tribal member in Spanish. The person responded in English and showed them a driver's license and tribal ID, and the agents reportedly then walked away. Snopes reached out to the officials of the Mescalero Apache Tribe to ask whether they had learned of any other incidents and will update this story if they reply.
Snopes also reached out to ICE to ask whether the agency could confirm the reports. We also asked about measures the agency was taking to prevent such situations from occurring, if any. We will update this report should they respond.