Elaine Miles, a Native American actress best known for her roles in Northern Exposure and Smoke Signals, has said she was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who reportedly told her that her tribal identification card was “fake”.
In a social media post, Miles said she was walking to a bus stop near the Redmond Bear Creek Village shopping centre in Washington state when four masked men in vests marked “ICE” emerged from two unmarked black SUVs and demanded her ID. She presented her card from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) in Oregon, which one agent allegedly said was “fake”.
Miles said the men refused to give their names or badge numbers. When she pointed to the enrolment office number on the back of the card and told them to call, they did not. She tried to call the office herself, but the agents attempted to take her phone. Then a fifth agent whistled from one of the SUVs, and the group abruptly returned to their vehicles and drove off.
The incident came amid a reported increase in ICE activity in the region. On 4 November, KING 5 reported that ICE had made recent arrests in Redmond and Issaquah. The agency’s regional director set a new goal of 30 daily arrests across Oregon, Washington, and Alaska, double the 2024 target. Miles’ post coincided with ICE arrests at Bear Creek Village, prompting the city council to vote to shut off Flock Safety licence-plate cameras over concerns they could be used in future immigration enforcement.
Miles said the incident was not isolated within her family. Both her son and her uncle, she said, were previously detained by ICE agents who also questioned the legitimacy of their tribal IDs before releasing them. The CTUIR, made up of the Umatilla, Cayuse, and Walla Walla tribes, signed a treaty with the US in 1855, ceding roughly 6.4 million acres of ancestral homelands. Today, the reservation is home to several thousand enrolled citizens.
