The Fight

On January 29, 2026, Oglala Sioux Tribe (OST) President Frank Star Comes Out formally banished both ICE and U.S. Border Patrol from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. The action invoked tribal sovereignty and came in direct response to ICE arrests of four enrolled OST members in Minneapolis. It is the first documented tribal banishment of federal immigration enforcement agencies in this catalog and represents a distinct front in the national fight over immigration enforcement: the tribal sovereignty front.

The Minneapolis Arrests

In January 2026, ICE arrested four enrolled Oglala Sioux Tribal members who were living under a bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Three of the four were subsequently transferred to an ICE detention facility at Fort Snelling, Minnesota.

The tribal members were enrolled citizens of the Oglala Sioux Tribe — a Native American nation with a government-to-government relationship with the United States, protected by a series of treaties. Tribal leadership characterized the arrests as a violation of those treaty obligations.

The Banishment Action

On January 29, 2026, President Frank Star Comes Out issued a formal order banishing both ICE and U.S. Border Patrol from Pine Ridge Reservation. The action was grounded in tribal sovereignty — the inherent authority of a sovereign nation to control who enters its territory.

President Star Comes Out wrote directly to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, demanding the release of the four detained tribal members and framing the detentions as a treaty violation. The letters put both Cabinet officials on notice that the Tribe regarded the arrests as an infringement on treaty-protected rights.

The Tribe also made clear it would not enter any 287(g) agreement with ICE — the mechanism by which local law enforcement can be deputized to perform immigration enforcement functions. Pine Ridge will not serve as an extension of the federal deportation apparatus.

Why This Matters

The OST action is significant on multiple levels. As a legal matter, the banishment asserts that tribal sovereignty extends to the right to exclude federal immigration enforcement absent a treaty basis for that presence. As a political matter, it places the federal government in the uncomfortable position of having to either respect the tribal order or confront a Native nation over immigration enforcement — on land whose sovereignty derives from U.S. treaty obligations.

The case also highlights the vulnerability of Native Americans and tribal members to immigration enforcement operations that treat the Pine Ridge diaspora — people who may be living in cities like Minneapolis due to economic displacement from the reservation — as targets indistinguishable from foreign nationals.

The Tribe’s refusal to sign a 287(g) agreement is equally significant: it forecloses the most common pathway by which federal immigration enforcement expands into new jurisdictions.

Timeline

• January 2026: ICE arrests four enrolled Oglala Sioux Tribal members living under a bridge in Minneapolis
• January 2026: Three of four transferred to ICE detention at Fort Snelling, Minnesota
• 2026-01-29: OST President Frank Star Comes Out formally banishes ICE and U.S. Border Patrol from Pine Ridge Reservation; writes Interior Secretary Burgum and DHS Secretary Noem citing treaty violation
• Ongoing: Tribe refuses to enter 287(g) agreement with ICE

Key Actors

• Frank Star Comes Out — Oglala Sioux Tribe President; issued banishment order January 29, 2026
• Doug Burgum — U.S. Secretary of the Interior; received tribal letter demanding release
• Kristi Noem — U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security; received tribal letter
• Four enrolled OST members — Arrested in Minneapolis; three transferred to Fort Snelling
• Oglala Sioux Tribe — Sovereign government; asserted tribal jurisdiction over Pine Ridge Reservation

Sources

• KOTA TV: Oglala Sioux Tribe president banishes ICE, U.S. Border Patrol from Pine Ridge Reservation (January 29, 2026)
• MPR News: South Dakota tribe, Oglala Sioux, demands release of Lakota men in Minneapolis detained by ICE (January 13, 2026)
• Axios: Oglala Sioux Tribe — ICE holding tribal members (January 13, 2026)