On April 8, the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute (LPPI) and the Arizona State University School of Transborder Studies co-hosted “Latinos as Agents and Targets: Power and Politics in Immigration Enforcement” at the ASU California Center located in downtown Los Angeles.

Over 100 community members attended a discussion on the complex identities and inequalities that contribute to Latinos representing a large share of immigration enforcement officers while being in the crosshairs of enforcement actions. Latinos constitute about half of employees in the U.S. Border Patrol and nearly 30% of employees in Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The program began with opening remarks from Irasema Coronado, director and professor at ASU School of Transborder Studies. She spoke of growing up in a border town at a time when agents greeted her mother with familiarity, and witnessing the transformation of immigration enforcement to now inflicting emotional and economic harm on neighborhoods with indifference.

“What we see again and again is that enforcement does not end at the border,” Coronado said. “It reverberates across communities.”

The discussion then moved to a panel moderated by Amada Armenta, director at UCLA LPPI. Panelists included  Irene I. Vega, associate professor of sociology at UC Irvine; Lisa Magaña, professor in ASU’s School of Transborder Studies; and Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times columnist.

Vega explained that the compounding effects of educational inequality, unequal economic opportunity, and recruiting agents from the military contribute to the prevalence of Latinos in immigration enforcement.

“Latinos are drawn into these jobs because in some regions, they are the best jobs there are,” Armenta said. “These are high-paying jobs that offer an entry into the middle class.”

Latinos often join ICE and USBP believing they will be “one of the good ones,” Vega said, adding that many agents are children and grandchildren of Mexican immigrants. When they enter the force, however, agents are trained to see migrants as “bodies” and treat them without discretion, Magaña said.

Lack of accountability allows excessive use of force and false narratives about Latinos being dangerous to proliferate, Magaña said. Vega added that 97% of complaints lodged by the public against the Border Patrol did not result in disciplinary action.

“You don’t actually need bad-intentioned people to get bad outcomes,” Vega said. “All you need is people willing to take these jobs, and then you can train them to think about the work in a way that makes them think that they’re the good guys.”

Reducing the harm of the U.S. immigration system involves diverting funds from enforcement and private prison corporations to services, such as courts and documentation, Magaña and Vega said. Stemming the flow of Latinos to ICE and USBP means pushing for equal educational and economic opportunities, Vega added.

Tensions between Latinos who support immigration enforcement and those targeted by ICE and USBP are emblematic of broader divisions amongst Latino voters. 

Drawing on his roadtrip across the Southwest, Arellano emphasized that Latinos do not vote as a monolith – disparate economic, regional, and generational backgrounds result in disparate voting patterns. Those in politics must no longer rely on party lines and “hispandering” to appeal to Latino voters, Magaña added.

“The sooner we all accept that it is a hugely fragmented community, the better it is that we can get Latino power, and the better we can advocate for issues that at least we here find moral and important to advocate for,” Arellano said.