Native Tribe Requiring Proof Of Citizenship Status

A native American tribe in New Mexico is asking renters in their tribal-owned mobile home park for proof of citizenship. If the renters can’t prove their citizenship or authorized immigrant status, they have to leave the reservation.

I’m having a hard time figuring out where to file this.

If anyone has dibs on enforcing immigration, it’s native Americans. Add to that the fact that tribes in the U.S. are sovereign – what they call nation-within-a-nation. There are treaties that formalize nation-to-nation relationships between native tribes and the federal government.  Basically, native tribes govern themselves. So while the rest of the country is in a tizzy over immigration, the  Tesuque Pueblo people, of northern New Mexico, took matters into their own hands.

First, a question, and an observation: I wonder what the anti-immigrant folks in Arizona, Georgia and Alabama are thinking right about now? Is there such a thing as sovereignty-envy? Second, the Tesuque Pueblo’s motives, as reported in The New Mexican, have to do with federal funding. The pueblo made changes because:

it receives “lots of funding from the federal government and they want to make sure they are doing things right.” Housing and Urban Development grant rules say that its money cannot be used to aid undocumented residents, but in a statement the tribe said the trailer park does not receive federal money.

Tesuque Pueblo is about 10 miles north of Santa Fe, and the trailer park in question, the Tesuque Trailer Village, is on the Pueblo. According to the Associated Press:

The tribe also is raising residents’ rent. For years, tenants of the Tesuque Trailer Village near Santa Fe paid $300 a month to rent space. As of November, the rent will be $400 plus $26.50 of gross-receipts tax, an official notice showed.

Some of the federal monies that the tribe receives comes from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), but technically, HUD does not require landlords to verify residency status. Also, according to New Mexico state law:

illegal immigrants do not have to show they are legally in the U.S. to rent housing — or attend public schools and get basic utilities such as water and sewer.

So I guess the Tesuque fathers are doing what they’re doing to be on the safe side, and because they can.

There have been tribal meetings and calls for understanding, but so far the pueblo council has been unmoved. Some of the residents are talking to lawyers, to see what legal recourse they may have. But we go back to the fact that the tribe is sovereign. So the protesting renters may be out of luck.

Adonias Mendez, who has become the unofficial tenant leader, said he was collecting statements from residents and is hoping they can personally speak with Tesuque Pueblo Gov. Frederick Vigil. Many residents have lived in the community for five to 10 years, Mendez said, and they’ve never had such problems before.

Still, the tribe has the final say, and they have given the renters until June of 2012 to resolve their status.