Why do Latinos work for ICE?

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

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 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.

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 Arrests Ramp Up, Which Only Continues To Prove Most Migrants Aren’t Criminals

Public furor is hard to maintain. It takes a concerted effort from people who have a lot to lose. Not only do they not have anything to gain (financially or otherwise) from engaging in protests, bu…

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.

Research Shows ICE Raids Are Killing Local Economies

Contrary to the “worst of the worst” posturing presented by the Trump administration, it’s long been known that immigrants (both legal or otherwise) commit fewer crimes than natur…

ICE Detained Them, and Then They Vanished

Under Trump, the U.S. increasingly sends immigrants all over the nation with little warning, leaving families and attorneys unsure where they are.

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.

10,000 rulings: The courts’ overwhelming rebuke of Trump’s ICE policies

A POLITICO analysis reveals judges have ruled against ICE detention practices in roughly 90 percent of cases since the agency mandated that millions of immigrants must be locked up while they face deportation proceedings.

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