On National Missing or Murdered Indigenous Persons Awareness Day, Rep. Greg Stanton renewed his call for additional federal resources, including law enforcement professionals, to combat the epidemic of MMIP. His call comes as the Departments of Justice and Interior announced members of the Not Invisible Act Commission.
Stanton cosponsored and worked to pass the Not Invisible Act, which was signed into law in 2020. The bill established this cross jurisdictional advisory committee tasked with making recommendations to the DOI and DOJ, including issues related to the hiring and retention of law enforcement offices and coordination of Tribal-state-federal resources to combat MMIP and human trafficking offices on Indian lands.
“It’s my hope that the long-delayed creation of this Commission, and the experts and Tribal leaders included, can finally convince the Department of Justice to dispatch more agents and more resources to Indian Country,” Stanton said.
DOI and DOJ announced the Commission members in a press conference today, including Navajo Nation Councilmember Amber Crotty and Heston Silbert, Colonel of the Arizona Department of Public Safety.
Crotty, who chairs the Council’s Sexual Assault Prevention subcommittee and had testified before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee Hearing on the MMIW crisis in 2018, sharply criticized federal law enforcement’s response during a panel discussion hosted by Stanton in December 2021
“Navajo Nation, Indian Country does not have enough [FBI] agents. Navajo Nation, Indian Country does not have the jurisdiction or the resources that they need,” Crotty said.
Following questioning from Stanton during a November 2021 Congressional hearing, Attorney General Merrick Garland also acknowledged that the Justice Department has not considered growing the FBI’s Indian Country Program, which has fewer than 150 Special Agents who serve 574 federally recognized Tribes and 326 Tribal reservations.