New Study Explores Why US Latinos Join ICE and Border Patrol - Latino Rebels

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.

Why do Latinos work for ICE?

Half of border agents are Latino, and they are part of a long history of Hispanic support for – and enforcement of – harsh immigration policies

Why Latinos Join ICE

One reason: They’re aiming to protect, not betray, their communities.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 is laying off agents hired during its rapid expansion after discovering discrepancies in their backgrounds

A ‘Washington Post’ investigation reveals that the agency hired thousands of officers with incomplete background checks, while a whistleblower warned of an unprecedented lowering of hiring standards

Opinion | A terrifyingly common ICE tactic targets lawful green card applicants

Arresting legal immigrants at their immigration appointments has become part of a new and terrifyingly common strategy for immigration enforcement.

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.

You’ve Heard About Who ICE Is Recruiting. The Truth Is Far Worse. I’m the Proof.

What happens when you do minimal screening before hiring agents, arming them, and sending them into the streets? We're all finding out.

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.