Once an exclusively white enterprise, the last forty-five years have witnessed the emergence of a disproportionately Latinx immigration law enforcement workforce. This article addresses the question of why Latinxs elect to work for agencies that have systematically targeted the ethnic communities to which they belong. Where existing scholarship has often implied Latinxs may self-select into immigration law enforcement due to a lack of identification with the immigrant-experience, a dissociation with ethnic identity, and generally restrictionist immigration attitudes, this article finds little empirical evidence to support such an assumption. Analysis of interviews with sixty-one Latinx Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents across Arizona, California, and Texas reveals, instead, Latinxs elect to work in immigration law enforcement in service of economic self-interest and survival, with “money,” “a good job,” and “benefits” cited as the primary motivation(s) behind applying for and accepting a job in immigration. This pattern holds irrespective of individual agents’ levels of identification with the immigrant-experience and particular attitudes toward immigration, and suggests a diversity in the demographics of immigration law enforcement agencies that extends beyond mere race and ethnicity, to include a diversity of perspective and potential for empathy.
Latinxs in <i>La Migra</i> : Why They Join and Why It Matters
Once an exclusively white enterprise, the last forty-five years have witnessed the emergence of a disproportionately Latinx immigration law enforcement workforce. This article addresses the question of why Latinxs elect to work for agencies that have systematically targeted the ethnic communities to which they belong. Where existing scholarship has often implied Latinxs may self-select into immigration law enforcement due to a lack of identification with the immigrant-experience, a dissociation with ethnic identity, and generally restrictionist immigration attitudes, this article finds little empirical evidence to support such an assumption. Analysis of interviews with sixty-one Latinx Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents across Arizona, California, and Texas reveals, instead, Latinxs elect to work in immigration law enforcement in service of economic self-interest and survival, with “money,” “a good job,” and “benefits” cited as the primary motivation(s) behind applying for and accepting a job in immigration. This pattern holds irrespective of individual agents’ levels of identification with the immigrant-experience and particular attitudes toward immigration, and suggests a diversity in the demographics of immigration law enforcement agencies that extends beyond mere race and ethnicity, to include a diversity of perspective and potential for empathy.
New Study Explores Why US Latinos Join ICE and Border Patrol - Latino Rebels
A new study found that most of the agents joined because they wanted a stable job, and didn’t see many other ways of getting one.
Why do Latinos join ICE? | Code Switch
I asked Latinos why they joined immigration law enforcement. Now I'm urging them to leave.
Latinos make up half of American Border Patrol agents. But it's not self-hatred driving them to work for agencies deporting their communities.
Why do Latinos join ICE? : Code Switch
Latinos make up at least 50% of all Customs and Border Patrol agents and 20% of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents — which has a lot of critics asking, why? We talk to Geraldo Cadava, professor of Latino Studies at Northwestern and contributor to the Atlantic, to break down some of the reasons Latinos join ICE, and he tells us, there are many people who believe in the mission of immigration enforcement.
When Pedro Arrests Juan: Why Latinos Join Border Patrol and ICE ~ L.A. TACO
Many Latino families inherited the same lesson generation after generation: When society views you as foreign, proving your Americanness can become its own form of survival.
Why Latinos Join ICE
One reason: They’re aiming to protect, not betray, their communities.
Immigration agents used racial slurs during LA sweeps, court records show
Records released as part of a lawsuit challenging racial profiling show that immigration agents used slurs to refer to Latino targets.
“Denying America”: Vivian's Counterstory of Undocumented Status
Abstract. This article provides a counterstory of a formerly undocumented Latina student's experiences navigating school and music education in the United States. Using tenets of undocumented critical theory (UndocuCrit) and counter-storytelling, I share Vivian's journey through secondary and postsecondary education as she encountered systemic barriers in pursuit of a career in music education. Vivian's narrative revealed institutional hindrances that disrupted access to music education at both secondary and postsecondary levels. Notably, shifting policies, misinformation, limited access to funding, and issues with immigration documents interfered with Vivian's aspirations of becoming a certified, full-time music educator. Unwavering familial support and legal assistance from a skilled attorney aided her pursuit of higher education. Eventually, Vivian fashioned a new path in a different field of study and now uses her experiential knowledge to assist others who are undocumented. Possibilities for working with undocumented immigrant students and families are discussed in light of fluid immigration policies and the ongoing sociopolitical climate.
Federal Immigration Agent Shootings
An aggregated dataset of shootings by agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection.
Refusing Settler Domesticity — Oakland Public Library
Refusing Settler Domesticity — Keliiaa, Caitlin, — In the early twentieth century, the Bay Area Outing Program coercively recruited over a thousand Native girls and women from boarding schools to labor as live-in domestic workers across the San Francisco Bay Area. Outing removed Native people from their communities and transferred them to white homes, farms, and businesses to work as menial laborers. In exchange for room, board, and meager pay, Native women and girls as young as twelve cooked, cleaned, and lived in the homes of their employers. Despite oppressive living and working conditions, Native women strategically resisted the worst aspects of outing, including Indian child removal, sexual surveillance, criminalization, and exploitation. Throughout, they forged social connections and navigated relationships to refuse domestication and assert their agency. In this groundbreaking work, Historian Caitlin Keliiaa examines Native women's lived experiences of federal policy and connects outing to the region's longer history of coerced Native labor. The book, as indictment, expands the existing work on Indian boarding schools, urban Indians, and the history of California and the West.
ICE Detention Trends | Vera Institute of Justice
Every year, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) subjects hundreds of thousands of people to civil immigration detention—a practice that is unjust, inhumane, and completely unnecessary. It does so under a veil of secrecy, sharing only limited, often error-prone statistics with the public. ICE’s failure to regularly release accurate, complete, and accessible data to the public enables it to operate its multi-billion-dollar detention network with impunity and little oversight.
Amid a big hiring push, police experts question ICE officer vetting
The recent fatal shootings by ICE officers in Texas and Maine come at a time when the federal agency has hired a huge number of officers quickly. Some law enforcement experts worry that this kind of a hiring spree can lead police agencies to cut corners in vetting new hires.
ICE violence against women is largely untracked. One advocacy group is working to change that.
Immigration agents with prior records of sexual and gender-based violence have drawn attention in Trump’s second term amid questions about training and vetting.
They Walk Among Us - Criminal ICE and Border Agents — Ohio Immigrant Alliance
The Ohio Immigrant Alliance released “They Walk Among Us: A List of 59 Sexually and Physically Abusive ICE and Border Agents,” an analysis of sexual and violent crimes committed by ICE and Border Patrol agents. It report documents 59 cases of violent and/or sexual criminal acts by DHS employees.
Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996
The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRAIRA), is a law enacted as division C of the Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Act of 1997 which made major changes to the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). IIRAIRA's changes became effective on April 1, 1997.
