U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrest people during a raid in Houston, Texas, February 2010. Courtesy of ICE
On Jan. 29, a Diné woman told Searchlight New Mexico that ICE agents racially profiled and questioned her during a Jan. 22 workplace raid in Scottsdale, Arizona. The incident lasted around an hour and a half, she said, and deeply frightened her and her coworkers. What follows is a transcript of her account, edited for clarity and length.
“It could have been easy for me to say, ‘You know what, where’s your identification? You’re on my land.’ But I didn’t do that. It would have triggered a problem for me.”
I was at work. It happened so fast, we didn’t know what we were supposed to do. I mean, it’s like you just turned on a light switch and you had to go do whatever the cops told you to do. They came in early, before the administration got there, and they came in from the back, before anybody could stop them. They went through and randomly picked out people. There was no, like, “I have a search warrant. I need this person.” My office is right by the door, so they knocked and told me to go outside. I was like, “What for?” I felt racially profiled. It was mostly Hispanics who were taken, and I’m Navajo. Several people got taken: there was probably about 10 of us, maybe 12.
They didn’t put handcuffs on us or anything like that. They just walked us out to the parking lot and lined us up. But just that right there alone was very scary, the actual feeling of being taken out… I’ve never prayed so hard in my life. I didn’t know what to do. I’m a minority here, and I’m far from home. There were vans. There were already people in them. Some of them looked like they’d been crying. The staff that were lined up, they were crying. I reached for my phone to record. But they told us to put our phones away.
They weren’t mean or rude. They weren’t being violent towards us. They told us if we wanted to we could sit on the curb. They asked us if anybody needed to use a restroom, or to get a drink of water. I wasn’t afraid of them. I was more afraid of what the heck was happening. It was like, “I know I didn’t do anything wrong. I have a clear background. Why are you guys pulling us out?”
They were speaking in Spanish, and when an agent came to me, I said, “I don’t understand what you’re saying.” Then he changed his tone. He was like, “I’m sorry, I thought you were Hispanic.” I said, “No, I’m Native American.” He asked me for identification. I said that I had my identification on my phone, and he told me to go ahead and take it out. I showed him my Certificate of Indian Blood and he let me go. It could have been easy for me to say, “You know what, where’s your identification? You’re on my land.” But I didn’t do that. It would have triggered a problem for me.
Once I was let go, I just wanted to help the others. Our company had made sure that we all had documentation. After the agents looked at everybody else’s documents, they slowly let them go one at a time. As they came back inside, I gave them water, and we went into a little room, and they just let go. Some of them fell to their knees. They just cried. They thought ICE was coming to get them and take them out to never come back. The only thing you could do was hug them and comfort them, and to tell them that it was okay and that we’re going to be alright. The company told us that if we wanted to leave and go home early, that was fine. Everybody was in shock.
We heard that morning that it was happening in Mesa, but we didn’t think it would happen in Scottsdale. It’s an upper-class community. It’s run by the richest people. People had taken it as a joke, but when it really did happen, everybody was like, “Oh, my God, this is real.” We have a school right down the street here. I have a child who goes to the school, and the school notified me that they would not let ICE in, no matter what.
Do I wish this upon anybody? No. Do I wish for this to stop? Yes. I called the Navajo Nation president about what happened. Someone told me he was in the meeting and would return my call. To this day, I haven’t gotten a phone call. That’s what made me more upset: I had nobody, nothing to turn to.
This article first appeared on Searchlight New Mexico and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.