{"id":21374,"date":"2025-07-17T21:53:22","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T03:53:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/southern-ute-indian-tribe-addresses-ice-deportation-concerns\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:06:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:06:06","slug":"southern-ute-indian-tribe-addresses-ice-deportation-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/southern-ute-indian-tribe-addresses-ice-deportation-concerns\/","title":{"rendered":"Southern Ute Indian Tribe addresses ICE deportation concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"What
What sort of control over privately held land that falls within the exterior boundary of the Southern Ute Indian Reservation has become a point of contention between the tribe and the city of Durango. (Durango Herald file)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Southern Ute Indian Tribal Council issued a statement Tuesday reassuring members it is working with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to prevent deportations of Indigenous people.<\/p>\n

The statement, written by Chairman Melvin Baker, said ICE confirmed the agency is targeting only \u201cundocumented individuals who have committed serious crimes,\u201d not Indigenous citizens.<\/p>\n

However, the statement encouraged members to carry tribal ID and at least one other form of identification, such as a driver\u2019s license or a passport. Baker also wrote that the Tribal Council is working with state and federal governments to ensure members\u2019 rights and sovereignty are honored.<\/p>\n

The statement was issued in response to recent events, including alleged deportations of legal residents and undocumented immigrants with no criminal history.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe understand the anxiety and unease national events have caused \u2013 especially among our youth, elders, and families \u2013 and want to assure you that we are actively monitoring the situation and engaging our staff to respond appropriately,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n

The tribe released similar statements on social media<\/a> in January, reassuring members that ICE was only targeting undocumented immigrants who posed potential risks to the community.<\/p>\n

The statements also encouraged members to carry tribal and state identification, know their loved ones\u2019 contact information, keep tabs on their children\u2019s location and call 911 if ICE showed up at their door.<\/p>\n

The tribe did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.<\/p>\n

Baker wrote that if members have any questions about ICE activity on the reservation, they can call Justice and Regulatory Director Leonard Redhorse at 553-0995 or Southern Ute Police Department Chief Michael Barrow at 563-2811.<\/p>\n

For ID-related questions, Baker urged members to call Tribal Information Services at 563-2250 or 563-2248.<\/p>\n

sedmondson@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

members urged to carry identification amid fears of deportation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21375,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,2194,904,1097,561,629],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-21374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-illegal-immigrants","tag-immigration","tag-indigenous-people","tag-native-american","tag-southern-ute-indian-tribe"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21374"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77283,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21374\/revisions\/77283"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21374"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=21374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}