Have specific Native American tribes reported recent ICE raids or arrests in 2025?

1. Tribes that have reported direct encounters and detentions

Tribal governments and leaders from the Navajo Nation, Mescalero Apache Tribe, and the Oglala Sioux Tribe publicly described encounters in which tribal members were questioned and, in some cases, detained by ICE agents — the Navajo Nation reported citizens being detained in Phoenix and other cities, Mescalero leaders described a convenience-store stop in Ruidoso that led to prolonged questioning, and Oglala officials said four enrolled members were held in Minneapolis during a large enforcement operation ^[5][2][3].

2. Instances and local details that appeared in reporting

Reporting catalogues specific episodes: the Navajo Nation released a statement about a detention lasting nine hours, the Mescalero incident involved an agent asking for proof of U.S. citizenship at a New Mexico store, and tribal leaders in Minneapolis said several Native men near the Little Earth housing community were detained as part of a large ICE action that also sparked protests after a separate fatal shooting linked to an agent ^[2][6][3].

3. National patterns, tribal reactions and legal guidance

Tribes nationwide urged citizens to carry tribal and federal IDs and to report ICE encounters; organizations like the Native American Rights Fund stressed that U.S.-born Native Americans are citizens and advised on rights during stops, while tribal leaders warned the raids reflected racial profiling and sovereign disrespect ^[7][8][9]. Congressional Democrats and tribal officials voiced legal and sovereignty concerns, sending letters to the administration demanding action after multiple reported incidents ^[4][10].

4. Corroboration, limits of the record, and fact-checks

Mainstream outlets and fact-checkers corroborated several reported episodes but cautioned that social posts and early reports sometimes amplified unverified claims; Snopes and Reuters confirmed some detentions and questioning but noted that advocates and officials could not yet quantify how widespread stops of Native people were across all raids ^[2][4]. Legal analysts and law firms tracking the events flagged that ICE entry into tribal lands raises complex jurisdictional and evidentiary questions and that many claims remain under investigation ^[11].

5. ICE’s stated enforcement priorities and the counter-narrative

ICE and federal officials framed the 2025 operations as large-scale efforts targeting undocumented immigrants, with some reports noting thousands of arrests per day during the surge; tribes and advocates say enforcement has nonetheless ensnared U.S. citizens of Indigenous descent who are misidentified because of appearance or language ^[1][9]. That tension — between agency claims of targeting criminal noncitizens and tribal reports of profiling and wrongful detention — is central to the dispute and to ongoing calls for clearer protocols recognizing tribal IDs and sovereignty ^[1][7].

6. What reporting does not settle and why it matters

Available reporting documents explicit instances and named tribes reporting detentions or questioning but does not provide a comprehensive, independently verified count of all Native people detained nationwide during the 2025 raids; therefore, while specific tribes did report incidents and detentions, the overall scale and the frequency of wrongful detentions of U.S.-born tribal citizens remain areas where reporting acknowledges uncertainty and where further investigation is needed ^[2][10].