On November 3, actor Elaine Miles was waiting at a bus stop in Redmond, Washington, when four U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers approached her, demanding to see her ID. Miles, a registered member of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, stood her ground and in what – as she described – “felt like a lifetime, but it was only maybe 30 minutes, 45 minutes long,” they were arguing.

While calm and collected as she recounted the experience over Zoom with The Nerds of Color, Miles said how she was “cussing up a storm,” as she demanded to know why they were stopping her. She showed them her tribal ID, only for one of the ICE officers to say that it is fake and “anyone can make that.” It wasn’t until a fifth officer, who remained in one of the SUVs they arrived in, whistled them back, that she was free of their presence, but not of the experience.

Her encounter with ICE left her shaken, so much to where she retreated to her home for nearly three weeks. It was when her son, a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, took her out to eat, that he noted how much it affected her, as he observed her scoping her surroundings, looking at white people and the cars they were driving.

“Yesterday we went shopping and stuff, and he’s like, ‘Mom, are you okay?’” Miles recounted. “And I go, ‘Yeah, I’m okay.’ And then he was like, ‘You looked weird when that SUV came up.’ And then I go, ‘Well, if you guys stopped and had these big old men come at you and demand your ID, you would be the same way.’ And he goes, ‘Mom, these guys are just shopping at Cabela’s. They want new fishing gear.’”

Miles is not the first Indigenous person to have been racially profiled by ICE. As reported by CBS, the Navajo Nation has reported dozens of Native Americans being questioned or detained this year, even though Indigenous people cannot be deported. In a previous interview with The Seattle Times, Miles mentioned how her son and uncle were previously detained by ICE before they were eventually let go.

Her encounter was not the sole ICE activity in her area either, as she explained how the groundskeepers at the apartment complex she lives in – many of whom are of Mexican descent – have been fearing ICE coming around and possibly abducting them.

“One of them was hiding by the dumpster and I was like, ‘Why are you hiding?’ Miles recalled. “And he goes, ‘I’m just scared I’m going to get taken in. I’m a US citizen, but that doesn’t matter.’ And I go, ‘Hey, I hear you, because even I got stopped.’”

Miles has a significant fan following for her roles in projects like Northern Exposure, Smoke Signals, and The Last of Us. It’s because of her unique position that, after being persuaded by her uncle, she went public with her experience on Facebook and Instagram.

In response, she was cyber-bullied, with commenters accusing her of lying to get attention and calling her racist. She received death threats.

“I go, ‘I should be the one that’s mad, not you,’” she said. “‘It didn’t happen to you. It happened to me. Why are you mad? Why are you mad at me?’ And then I sat, and I thought about it. I cried. I cried a lot because some of the stuff that was said to me was hurtful.”

There was misinformation spread about the incident: some people said that ICE had their guns drawn on her, others said they had her in handcuffs. When inquired about ICE’s approach to Miles, Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of public affairs at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said that she was driving a vehicle registered to an undocumented immigrant, yet she wasn’t.

“I was like, ‘None of that happened,’” she remarked. “It’s like people [are] adding things to it. And it’s frustrating because I go, ‘Is my story that boring that you have to add stuff in it?’”

Things took a turn for Miles when CNN contacted her, asking if she would want to come on to speak about what happened to her. Darren Thompson of Sacred Defense Fund not only accompanied her on her appearance, but also sorted through the multiple other interview requests she wound up doing.

After her appearance on CNN, the cyber-bullying died down. As she elaborated, “It ended up a little better, because I actually had some people that were calling me all kinds of names in the book that they actually apologized for doing that. And I was shocked because some of the things they called me, it’s like, wow. And, I don’t know, it’s just kind of disheartening. And I don’t wish that upon anyone.”

She was thanked by friends for sharing her experience. As one friend of Mexican descent expressed to her, “We’re happy that you spoke up because you’re speaking out not just for your people, you’re speaking up for our… because we’re all brown people and we’re all being targeted.”

Miles expressed her frustration and disgust several times over the racial profiling that ICE is doing of brown and Black people, regardless of citizenship. That’s why she warns those communities to stay alert, to carry ID, and for those who’re Native, their tribal ID.

She also encourages that people not hate on each other, and work together to improve the conditions of the U.S.  

“Stay strong is all I say,” she said. “We got a big fight against us all; not just people of color, it’s everyone.”

It’s been nearly two months since her encounter with ICE, and Miles is doing better, to the point now where she even makes jokes about it.

“I have a Mexican friend, and he called me, and he goes, ‘Man, where were they going to deport you to?’” she recalled. “And I go, ‘I don’t know.’ And then he goes, ‘Back to the rez.’ And then he was teasing me, he goes, ‘Yeah, you can’t leave the rez. They’ll probably put one of those ankle bracelets on you, and you can’t come off the rez. You’ll have to just stop right at the line.’ And I go, ‘Like they would do that.’ Then he goes, ‘These people are batshit crazy. You never know.’

She even joked about getting a bodyguard. However, if there are any takers, a la The Bodyguard, there’s one thing she wants to note: “I’m single.”