By SAFIYAH RIDDLE, REBECCA SANTANA and GRAHAM LEE BREWER

The president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe has walked back claims he made in a memo and press release earlier this week that immigration enforcement arrested four tribal members and that the federal government tried to extract an “immigration agreement” out of the tribe in return for information about their members’ whereabouts.

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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said it can’t verify claims that any of their officers arrested or “even encountered” members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe or found anyone in their detention centers claiming to be a tribal member. They denied asking the tribe for any kind of agreement.

Tribal President Frank Star Comes Out has not responded to repeated requests for comment, including after his updated memo was released on Thursday.

The accusations of arrests came at a time when many Native Americans are already concerned over the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement agenda and racial profiling by federal agents ensnaring them as well, and as some tribes have grappled with whether to engage in agreements with DHS tied to the crackdown.

Star Comes Out said Tuesday in a message on Facebook that the men were arrested in Minneapolis, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement has launched its biggest operation ever and is increasingly clashing with protesters and residents angry at the agency’s tactics.

Star Comes Out also said that when the tribe reached out about the arrests, “federal officials told us that the Tribe could access that information if we entered an immigration agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.”

But in the memo Thursday, Star Comes Out said his earlier statement had been “misinterpreted” and that there was no such demand from federal officials. He said the tribe had been in “cooperative communications” with federal officials about the issue and that federal officials had said that “one option for the Tribe to have easier access to information is to enter into an immigration agreement” with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and DHS. He did not specify what type of agreement.

He also said the tribe was “working with Tribal, State, and Federal officials to verify” reports that tribal members living in Minneapolis were arrested by ICE. Earlier in the week he said he had been “made aware that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained four Oglala Sioux tribal members in Minneapolis” and that the tribe had their first names. He called the arrests “a treaty violation.”

A series of ICE arrests of tribal citizens

The Department of Homeland Security pushed back, saying that they “have not uncovered any claims by individuals in our detention centers that they are members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe” and haven’t been able to verify that their officers arrested anyone from the tribe. They also denied asking for any type of agreement from the tribe in return for giving out information.

“ICE did NOT ask the tribe for any kind of agreement, we have simply asked for basic information on the individuals, such as names and date of birth so that we can run a proper check to provide them with the facts,” Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said.

Last year, Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren said that several tribal citizens reported being stopped and detained by ICE officers in Arizona and New Mexico. He and other tribal leaders have advised their members to carry tribal IDs with them at all times.

Last November, Elaine Miles, a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon and an actress known for her roles in “Northern Exposure” and “The Last of Us,” said she was stopped by ICE officers in Washington state who told her that her tribal ID looked fake.

A member of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community in Arizona was arrested in Iowa in November and was mistakenly slated to be turned over the ICE before the error was caught and she was released, according to local media reports.

Recent clashes between Kristi Noem and Native American reservations

There is a history of tension between the Oglala Sioux and DHS that dates back to when Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was governor of South Dakota. In 2024, Star Comes Out banned Noem from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota after Noem said — without evidence — that cartels were infiltrating reservations in the state.

During her time as governor, Noem was banned from most of the nine reservations in the state.

Noem told federal lawmakers that a gang calling itself the Ghost Dancers was affiliated with drug cartels and was committing murder on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

Star Comes Out said at the time that he took deep offense at her reference, saying the Ghost Dance is one of the Oglala Sioux’s “most sacred ceremonies,” and was used by Noem “with blatant disrespect and is insulting to our Oyate,” using the Lakota word for “people” or “nation.”

At the time Noem said Star Comes Out’s decision was “unfortunate” and that her focus was on working together.

Controversial collaborations with immigration agencies

The controversy between the Oglala Sioux Tribe and ICE comes as some Native American tribes with contracts with Homeland Security are rethinking those agreements.

A tribal business entity associated with the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation ended a nearly $30 million federal contract signed in October to come up with an early design for immigrant detention centers across the U.S, after the deal was derided online as “disgusting” and “cruel” by tribe members. Many questioned how a tribe whose own ancestors were uprooted two centuries ago from the Great Lakes region and corralled on a reservation south of Topeka could participate in the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts.

In Alaska, Indigenous shareholders penned an op-ed in the Anchorage Daily News advocating that the Bering Straits Native Corporation — owned by thousands of Native American shareholders in Alaska — divest from all immigration detention centers across the country.

A spokesperson for the company didn’t respond to an e-mailed request for comment.

The FBI is offering a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to the recovery of stolen government property in Minneapolis and/or the arrest of people involved.

FBI director Kash Patel tweeted a bulletin seeking information and offering a reward related to the theft and destruction of government vehicles in Minneapolis on Jan. 14, 2026. (Courtesy of X)

On Wednesday night, authorities say a federal officer shot a man in the leg when he was attacked with a shovel and broom handle in North Minneapolis. It was one week after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Good, 37, in Minneapolis.

On Wednesday, federal officers wearing gas masks and helmets fired tear gas. Protesters threw rocks and shot fireworks.

“Several government vehicles were subsequently vandalized and broken into, and government property was stolen from inside the vehicles,” according to a FBI bulletin. “The FBI seeks information that will lead to the recovery of the stolen government property and/or the arrest of the individuals responsible for the destruction and theft of government property.”

Videos showed a locked storage box was pulled from the trunk of a federal vehicle and other items were stolen.

The FBI asks people to contact 800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324) or go to tips.fbi.gov.

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Joan Beringer was excellent in his first meaningful minutes for Minnesota on Tuesday in Milwaukee, tallying 13 points and five rebounds in 30 minutes on a night where the Wolves were without a suspended Rudy Gobert.

The 19-year-old rookie center was a defensive deterrent in the paint and a relentless pursuer of the basketball both on the glass and the floor.

“The effort we got from Joan … was spectacular,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch told reporters after the game. “Just kept a number of plays alive, tip-ins around the basket, just energy plays, hustle plays, challenged everything, loose balls. Everything was contested.”

All the little things, and exactly what Minnesota wants the Frenchman to bring to the court. It’s what Finch seemingly admires most about Beringer in his first season with the Timberwolves — he stars in his role.

“Seeing him play with so much excitement and activity, he knows who he is as a player,” Finch told Paul Allen this week on KFXN-FM 100.3. “And I always say this as a young player, figuring out who you are, and sticking to that and that being your foundation as you move forward. … playing to your strengths, and really leaning into them, and doing it over and over again with great energy is a way to get on the floor as a young player.”

It’s what Beringer showed in mop-up duty in the games leading up to Gobert’s one-game suspension, which informed Finch and Co. that the center was ready for some run. He probably wasn’t ready at the season’s outset. Forget his age, Beringer is still relatively new to basketball in general. He didn’t pick up the sport until his teenage years.

The raw talent and athleticism has been on display since his first Summer League game, but seasoning is required to achieve at the highest level. He received some of that during a three-game stint with the club’s G-League team in Iowa in mid-December.

MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN – JANUARY 13: Giannis Antetokounmpo #34 of the Milwaukee Bucks shoots the ball against Joan Beringer #19 of the Minnesota Timberwolves during the third quarter at Fiserv Forum on January 13, 2026 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)

Beringer said that stretch helped him “a lot” as he got more reps in an environment that somewhat mirrored the NBA’s levels of speed and physicality. When the center returned to Minnesota, Finch saw a player who was more composed and sure of how to use his boundless energy within the context of the game.

The extended minutes — Beringer averaged 30 per game over his final two games with Iowa — also improved his wind, which allows the big man to play his style of basketball for longer stints.

“He just really needed to go play to settle into this phase of life,” Finch said.

And now he has. And his strong performance in his first real crack with the Timberwolves has given the coaching staff something to “ponder.” But Minnesota’s roster still makes rotational permanency unlikely for the rookie.

Naz Reid, Julius Randle and Rudy Gobert eat up the Timberwolves’ big man minutes. Gobert’s suspension marked the first game any of those three have missed through the halfway point of the campaign.

On the surface, there simply aren’t minutes available for Beringer. It shouldn’t be a surprise if the center doesn’t see action Friday night in Houston.

Finch plans to try to find ways to sneak him onto the court, which could include some time for Reid at the small forward spot, something Minnesota has dabbled with in the past.

“People are going to have to sacrifice minutes,” Finch said. “But if he plays like this, then we should be benefiting from everybody. We’ll step by step this, but since draft night, we’ve long believed in this kid. So, this is just the beginning.”

But Finch also noted he can’t promise 20 minutes a night for Beringer, or even that the center will play on a game-to-game basis. The reality is, Minnesota’s roster is too good for such a guarantee and the Wolves have settled into a nice rotation that’s produced a good stretch of play.

So, maybe the coach can find his rookie a short stint here or there. But that won’t be enough to get Beringer the playing time the still fairly raw center needs to continue to progress as a player.

“You’ve got to play games, man. There’s no substitute for playing games. When you’re 19 years old and in the prime of your learning and development of your career, you’ve got to play games,” Finch said. “We’ll keep him up here (in Minnesota) for the time being, but he’s probably not done going back to Iowa.”

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“What was so powerful about the rent freeze campaign is that we reached scale in New York City,” said Sumathy Kumar, the new director for Housing Justice for All and its organizing arm, the New York State Tenant Bloc. “We’re going to build off of that to keep tenant power at the top of people’s minds.”

Sumathy Kumar, a veteran organizer for Housing Justice For All, is the group’s new director. (Courtesy HJ4A/NYS Tenant Bloc)

Housing Justice for All and its organizing arm, the New York State Tenant Bloc, have had a productive few years.

The groups helped pass momentous rent stabilization laws in 2019, Good Cause Eviction in 2024, and led a campaign to freeze the rent for the city’s rent stabilized tenants last fall that helped propel Mayor Zohran Mamdani to City Hall.

Thursday, the organization announced Sumathy Kumar, a veteran organizer for Housing Justice For All, as their next director.

Kumar replaces Cea Weaver, a tenant advocate who left the post to lead the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants.

Mayor Mamdani celebrated the appointment in a statement, saying, “Sumathy Kumar and I have fought side by side in Albany to win real, transformative change for working-class families and, as we look to freeze rents and hold bad landlords accountable, the tenant movement couldn’t have a more powerful champion. I’m proud to partner with Sumathy in the fight for every New Yorker to have a safe, stable, and affordable place to call home.”

Kumar spoke with City Limits this week to answer five questions about their plans for leading the largest tenant organization in the state.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity

Your group led a “freeze the rent” campaign for rent stabilized tenants in the city that helped catapult Mayor Mamdani to City Hall. Do you think he will freeze the rent this year, and what did you learn from that campaign that you will bring to leading HJ4A in the Mamdani era?

I do think we will win a rent freeze this year. 20,000 tenants over the last year organized to fight for a rent freeze. They voted for Zohran Mamdani and now he’s in City Hall. Those tenants aren’t going anywhere. They’re gonna keep fighting for a rent freeze and making sure it happens.

In addition to winning a rent freeze, we also have to be holding landlords accountable, making sure that people are living in decent conditions, making sure that rent stabilization is strong and supported and expanded, and working with the new mayor—who is the most tenant-friendly mayor we’ve had in generations—to carve out a new partnership between the tenant movement, tenants in their buildings, and City Hall. That’s going to be about the rent freeze, it’s going to be about code enforcement, it’s going to be about holding landlords accountable for lease issues. It’s going to be really exciting.

I think what was so powerful about the rent freeze campaign is that we reached scale in New York City. It was everywhere by the end of the primary: anyone who thought about the mayor’s race thought about a rent freeze. We’re going to build off of that to keep tenant power at the top of people’s minds around the city. When they’re thinking about City Hall, my hope is that they’re thinking about what they’re doing for tenants.

In the same way that we had a massive field operation where tenants across the city were knocking on their neighbors’ doors, talking to people about a rent freeze, now that same operation gets to be mobilized to talk about holding landlords accountable, driving landlords to the bargaining table with tenants, organizing our buildings, and winning even more.

Mayor Mamdani, in one of his first actions as mayor, pledged to reinvigorate the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants, and appointed your predecessor Cea Weaver to lead it. Weaver has come under scrutiny for past social media posts about changing the relationship New Yorkers, particularly white New Yorkers, have with homeownership. What do you make of that criticism? And do you have any message for Weaver as she leads this new office, in terms of what it can do to better serve tenants?

Cea has an amazing record of protecting tenants, fighting for tenants, and building this incredibly powerful movement that has got us to this point. So now I’m really excited to work with her in her new role, to bring the tenant movement into the halls of power, to work with City Hall in a new and exciting way. 

(Courtesy HJ4A/NYS Tenant Bloc)

Cea, with all her experience on the outside coming into City Hall, I can’t think of a better champion and a better person to lead that work at the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants.

I think that the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants can really work alongside tenants who are organizing in their buildings. We’re going to be going after big portfolios of landlords, we’re going to be talking to tenants across the city, and the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants can be talking in those same buildings, working on the same landlords to get them to actually negotiate with tenants around big things like repairs, like lease issues.

In her State of the State address this week, Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed stiffer criminal penalties for landlords who engage in systematic harassment of rent regulated tenants across multiple buildings, as well as repeat serious offenders of existing anti-harassment laws. How should she go about doing that? In your mind, is there anything missing from the governor’s agenda this year?

So often when we’re talking about tenant harassment, we’re leaning on the tenants themselves to be reporting that to the state, to be doing that proactive enforcement. Tenants do that when they have baseline protections from retaliation. And so what was missing from Kathy Hochul’s State of the State is support to expand rent stabilization to people who don’t have it right now. We are currently fighting for the REST Act at the state level, which would make it easier for upstate cities and towns to actually get rent stabilization so that they can have that baseline protection to be able to organize, to be able to hold their landlords accountable [for] harassment and to a lack of repairs.

Rent stabilization laws, including 2019’s Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act, which Housing Justice For All was critical in passing, have come under attack in the recent mayoral campaign and by some lawmakers and advocates. Some of them have suggested the rent stabilization rules are too restrictive as to make buildings unable to support themselves financially. How would you respond to those complaints? And are there any changes to the rent stabilization laws that you would be open to?

Rent stabilization is one of the biggest ways that people are currently staying in New York City right now … even while things have gotten so much more expensive. [We need to] expand it so that more tenants have access to it and can stay in their homes, can put down roots, can have a basic level of stability. That is what we are focused on in our 2026 legislative session. In a moment where we are facing a huge housing crisis, we should absolutely be keeping that system intact and expanding it as much as possible.

Landlords tried to make these arguments [against rent stabilization] during the mayoral race, and they failed. New Yorkers didn’t buy it. I think they’re going to keep trying to make those arguments, trying to say that in the face of a housing crisis, the thing to do is to raise people’s rents. And I think people know that that’s just not a good solution.

They’re trying to take power—rent money—and instead of putting it towards repairs, put it towards lobbying and try to convince people that the answer to our housing crisis is more rent hikes. We are going to be organizing people to stop that. All of the power that we built in New York City and across the state over the last years, we are going to keep wielding it in Albany this year to make sure that rent stabilization is whole, is intact, and is expanded so that more people can use it across the state.

You’ve been working in housing and organizing in New York for a number of years now. What do you think that you bring to this role that’s unique?

I’ve organized people in their buildings trying to hold their landlords accountable. I’ve organized people to take action at the state legislature. I’ve worked with people to do incredible direct actions, to do massive electoral field campaigns, and I’m excited to be able to bring all of those different experiences together so that tenants get to use every tool in our toolbox to wield power and win. 

I was one of the co-chairs of New York City DSA from 2020 to 2022 where I helped found the Socialists in Office Committee, alongside newly elected Assembly members and other DSA leaders. That forged a new type of partnership between elected officials and regular people trying to win big, bold things in Albany. That’s exactly the kind of energy I’m hoping to bring into this role too.

To reach the reporter behind this story, contact Patrick@citylimits.org. To reach the editor, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org

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The post Meet New York State’s New Top Tenant Advocate appeared first on City Limits.