Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is not a department that many expect a lot of Latinos to want to work in. In fact, many Latinos actively oppose it and are leading a movement to abolish ICE, which they see as an irredeemably racist institution.
Yet nearly 30 percent of ICE agents, and about 50 percent of Border Patrol agents in the U.S. are Latino. According to data Univision received from ICE in 2017, Latino ICE agents outnumber Black agents 2 to 1, and Asian agents by 4 to 1. White agents outnumber Latino agents by nearly 3 to 1.
Now, a new study looks at why Latino ICE and border agents join in the first place.
University of Notre Dame professor David Cortez interviewed over 60 ICE and Border Patrol agents as part of his research and asked how they found themselves in that job, and how they felt about it.
Most of the agents did not say they joined because they didn’t identify with their Latinidad, or because they held anti-immigrant views. Instead, they joined because they wanted a stable job, and didn’t see many other ways of getting one.
One Latino agent Cortez spoke with for the study, Claudio "CJ" Juarez, said this about why he began working in immigration enforcement decades ago:
"No—because I was literally starving. [laughing] I ate a lot of beans and rice in those days, let me tell you, man . . . But, really, I wish I could say that it was idealistic, or . . . more sexy—but it really was as simple as they were the first ones that called me, and I jumped on the first opportunity."Another Latina ICE agent that Cortez interviewed, Sylvia Newman, answered the question this way:
"I was a single parent—that’s why I got this job . . . I had just gotten divorced and had a two-year-old and a three-year-old; and I needed a job with a little more security . . . So, I started applying . . . I just went to all the federal agencies, to see—you know, like—[what] the qualifications were . . . and I just started applying—and then [the ICE application] started going through."Cortez noted the agents sought work in immigration enforcement for similar reasons to why many immigrants leave Latin America and try to come to the US. They were looking for a better life.
Their economic struggles are the same stories that many US Latinos face in finding stable income. Latinos make up 18 percent of the US population, but they account for 27 percent of people living in poverty, according to data from the US Census Bureau.
There’s a long history of controversy around Latino immigration enforcement agents. Latinos experience high rates of deportation, and agents with Spanish-language skills and cultural competency are seen as a valuable asset for ICE.
"It’s good because they speak the language,” David Marín, Field Office Director for ICE ERO in Los Angeles told Univisión in a 2017 interview. “It’s also a challenge because we’re regularly asked, 'Why are you deporting your own people?'"
Last year a Latina border patrol officer in Texas went viral under the nickname, "ICE Bae." Some praised her online as a "Latina hero," but a few criticized her, saying her parents should disown her for working as an immigration enforcement officer.
In response, Kiara Cervantes a.k.a. "ICE Bae" responded to criticisms by saying she was thankful for her career.