Latinos join ICE for job security, but they should rethink their positions
By SABRINA FIGUEROA — sfigueroaavila@ucdavis.edu
With the recent murder of Renee Good in Minnesota, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is currently under a microscope — and deservingly so. As attention grows, so does the question of who makes up ICE and why they willingly work against their communities.
While ICE agents are made up of many different races and ethnicities, what is most surprising to many is that Latinos make up 24% of ICE agents. However, as someone who grew up in the Latinx community, I can say that this doesn’t shock me — that doesn’t make it any less disturbing.
The thing with Latinos in the United States is that our privilege is based on our proximity to whiteness — that is, how “white passing” we are. Because the U.S. has historically been unkind, cruel and prejudiced against racial minorities, many Latinos have chosen to identify as white when they can and when it benefits them. Going far deeper than that, the community has its fair share of colorism and racism dating all the way back to colonization of the Americas.
The statuses of “legal” or “illegal” create a deeper divide amongst the community as well. For example, back when César Chávez was active in fighting for campesinos’ and farmworkers’ rights, Chávez and the United Farm Workers (UFW) union were against undocumented Mexican immigrants and together formed a private Border Patrol. Chávez argued that immigrants were used as strikebreakers and as a way to drive wages down for campesinos who were citizens. While it’s true that the labor of undocumented immigrants is exploited, this specific narrative only furthered the “vs” versus “them” mentality.
Since the U.S. has allowed ICE to racially and ethnically profile people for their inhumane operations, this is a time where many Latinos are trying to separate themselves from the target group. Wearing an ICE vest allows people to assimilate into what they perceive to be “American” or what the current administration tells them is “American.”
While this specific divide surely plays a part in the significant Latino makeup of ICE, it also has to do with class. Latinos in the U.S. make up 28% of the population in poverty, according to 2020 Census data. A recent study by David Cortez, an assistant professor of political science and Latino studies at the University of Notre Dame, revealed that one of the main reasons why Latinos join ICE is for job security.
Sylvia Newman was one of the ICE agents that Cortez interviewed.
“I was at the bottom, bottom bracket, you know?” Newman said. “I worked two jobs […] I was a single parent […] I had just gotten divorced and had a 2-year-old and a 3-year-old and I needed a job with a little more security.”
With high unemployment rates, there is a “surplus labor force,” or a greater number of people seeking jobs than there are jobs available. If you’re in serious circumstances and need a stable income quickly, a federal enforcement job is an easy fix with benefits and security. Combine your financial insecurity with the government’s white supremacist agenda, and suddenly, there is a job for you — your economic desperation turns into economic exploitation.
Undocumented or not, being in a constant state of survival is being used against you. The zero-sum game is not you against your own community members, it’s against a government that doesn’t truly care about you. The more you do the dirty work for them, the more you continue to lose. Turning into the oppressor of the people within your own community keeps the community as a whole — including you — oppressed.
Attempts of assimilation into whiteness or into being more “American” is inherent to these operations, too. No matter what, in joining ICE and staying, you are implicitly stating that you’re different from people within your community who are undocumented and that you’re okay with benefitting from someone else’s loss. However, let it be known that without an ICE vest and a facecovering, the government sees us all the same.
The truth is, all Latino ICE agents should be uncomfortable with being preyed on and with their positions. This should not be your last resort; there will always be more ethical ways for you to survive. You don’t need to be part of ICE to get out of poverty. At some point, you have to ask yourself if money and privilege is more important than morality. This is not the time to separate our Latinx community further — it’s a time to band together to fight economic, racial and ethnic injustices.
Written by: Sabrina Figueroa — sfigueroaavila@ucdavis.edu
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