Legislators are attempting to overcome long-standing barriers to public safety within cultural jurisdictions, but ethnic communities in Texas and throughout the United States continue to grapple with these issues.
Data on violence in ethnic country is minimal, but survey data shows an overrepresentation of Native American populations in the federal criminal justice system, according to the Prison Policy Initiative. According to a report from the U.S. Department of Justice’s” Jail Inmates in 2018,” American Indian/Alaskan Native persons had about half the prison incarceration rate of both Hispanics and non-Hispanic white people, who had 185 and 187 prison incarcerations per 100, 000 people, respectively.
Data collection and sharing are a hidden feature of the intricate criminal justice system that governs both cultural territories and national land, and they also have an impact on public safety efforts. Acts that occur on tribal land are evaluated by a complex regulating body that includes tribal police departments, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and state and county practices.
The Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas, which is around Eagle Pass along the Rio Grande, and the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas, which are located in the eastern region of Texas near Livingston, are all federally recognized Native American tribes.
Due to its close proximity to the Mexican border, drug trafficking work have a lot of potential to make the most of public health gaps. This April, an Eagle Pass man was sentenced to 30 years for” trafficking meth, heroin, and weed on Kickapoo Tribal Land”, according to the DOJ. Officials located the person in a residence on Kickapoo area.
Another deceptive issue, made worse by legal uncertainty, is drug cartel activity on cultural land.
Paul Rojas, a deputy purchasing manager who works with Texas tribes to raise police, fire response, and clinical response capabilities, spoke with The Texan about the importance of these issues, specially” with the advent of the fentanyl crisis on the border, and increased cartel traffic”.
Rojas claimed that” the gang is definitely smart about how they operate.”
Because they have the protection of “operating in another country, even though it’s America,” he said,” One of the things they’ve figured out is that they can operate with impunity on tribal land.”
Rojas added that organizations tend to target the youth on cultural land, and that one of the leading causes of death among Native Americans is drug and alcohol abuse.
The disparities between operations have become apparent in recent years, and the majority of state and federal law enforcement are free from the difficulties faced by ethnic law enforcement.
In addition to the U.S. House and U.S. Senate, some bills have been introduced with the same goal over the past year, all of which aim to improve public safety for tribal communities throughout the United States.
Background
In 1990, a foundational bill passed through the U. S. House called the Indian Law Enforcement Reform Act ( ILER ). The Bureau of Indian Affairs ( BIA ) serving as the governing body “responsible for providing law enforcement services” in tribal territories was made possible by the bill.
Through the BIA, which had its roots in 1869, Thomas Lightfoot, a U.S. Indian agent to Nebraskan nations, as a tool, the ILER sought to clarify existing law enforcement.
The bill sought to establish law enforcement services within the BIA through several methods, including the “development and provision of law enforcement training and specialized support”. It gave the authority to authorize BIA workers with “law police responsibilities” to carry weapons, carry weapons, and carry out arrests “without warrants” for crimes committed in cultural territories, as well as to execute warrants and various orders for crimes in ethnic territories.
The ILER allowed for discrepancies between national and cultural agencies, which are now on federal lawmakers ‘ desks, and clarified a mixed system of federal and ethnic operations.
Rojas stated that national monitoring varies from tribe to tribe, and some have more independent power than others. He added that nations frequently have to “go through the network of the federal government, which is slower than honey.” They will have a bigger problem on their arms than if they would have been able to resolve it themselves by then.”
Operations usually feel like “another land with another nation”, according to Rojas.
Firearms
Access to firearms is one of the obstacles that cultural law enforcement faces. While Texas has some moderately restrictive gun laws, cultural law enforcement organizations are governed by different laws, making it difficult for them to obtain firearms with the same convenience as provincial or state law enforcement.
Rojas stated that there is often a “disjointedness, lack of access to technology, lack of access to information, and more rings that]tribal law enforcement officers ] have to jump through than a typical law enforcement officer would have to”.
Native American tribes and their police departments are not affiliated with, or associated with, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ( ATF), or according to the ATF. a political division of a State, or of a State-wide state.
” Therefore, tribal police departments generally do not qualify for the exemption from payment of the transfer tax for]the National Firearms Act ( NFA) ] firearms, are not eligible to receive firearms interstate, and can not possess a’ post-1986 ‘ machinegun”, the ATF said.
Through a multi-step procedure, the BIA had word the tribal authorities department’s officials. The department is free from the transfer taxes, federal move prohibition, and machine gun prohibition once they are deputized.
Rojas stated that even when departments are sponsored by the BIA or the Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI ), law enforcement officers” still have to go through additional training”, compared to “what a cop in Austin or a cop in San Antonio would have to work with to get access to standard issue equipment”.
Rojas added that first responders were also affected by the lack of exposure to technology.
There is a lack of trust in the sector, he said, “where they will hand off second-tier or third-tier products” or” they won’t side what would be given to a standard fire or Paramedic”
Rojas recalled a new purchase for an automated external device, in which the device held by the community was “almost 15 years old”.
The same problems are present in tribal police departments when they obtain firearms for their officers. In a drawn-out, overly bureaucratic procedure, Rojas explained that permission must be obtained “from both sides.” He contrasted this with a hypothetical incident in a major Texas city in which” the FBI would be brought in with one call”.
Rojas continued,” The tribes want to be autonomous where they don’t have the oversight from the federal government, and rightfully so because they’ve been taken advantage of for three or four hundred years, but they also need a wider expertise.”
He came to the conclusion that” the lack of jurisdiction understanding” makes a bigger issue.
Legislation continues to be filed in Congress to address the issue. The” Parity for Tribal Law Enforcement Act” was introduced in the United States House and Senate in 2025.
In 2025, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA ), a former senator and current U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, filed it in the Senate, and House version was introduced that year by U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA-4).
The bill seeks to amend the ILER by providing” for advancements in public safety services to Indian communities” through giving qualifying tribal law enforcement officers the authority to enforce federal law in tribal territory.
The Tribal Police Department Parity Act, a crucial new bill introduced by Mullin, followed in the same year. This” Parity Act” aims to address the issues that tribal organizations face with access to firearms.
Its stated purpose is to treat” tribal law enforcement agencies in the same manner as federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies for purposes of accessing firearms”.
The Gun Control Act ( GCA ), which makes tribal law enforcement organizations ineligible to “receive firearms interstate” or to transfer or possess machine guns manufactured after 1986, is addressed by the Parity Act.
The NFA’s” transfer of NFA firearms” are also subject to taxes that the bill includes. While other” specified governmental entities” such as local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies are exempt from the tax, tribal law enforcement agencies do not have this privilege.
Rojas emphasized the significance of the bill, saying,” I think progress begins with the Police Tribal Parity Act.”
Our Native American partners must be treated like our brothers and sisters from there. They’ve been operating this way for a lot longer than we’ve been here, and we need to work and respect that”, he said.
The Parity Act was endorsed by the National Police Association ( NPI), which claimed it would eliminate “double standards” and allow” tribal law enforcement agencies to have the same access to firearms as their federal, state, and local law enforcement counterparts.
According to NPI Legislative Director Paula Fitzsimmons, the Parity Act “ensures that tribal law enforcement agencies can readily purchase the equipment they need to complete their mission.”
On the importance of the issue, and its potential entrée into law, Rojas stated that “it goes back to]the tribes ] being their own nations” and that” they’re the first, last, and only line of defense for dealing with law enforcement issues”.
There are all kinds of hoops that they have to jump through to get them involved, he said,” so if they’re out in the desert somewhere and they come across cartel people or they come across people with nefarious intent.” They don’t have minutes to respond when seconds count.
