Join ILS Faculty Fellow and Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science David Cortez as he discusses his work of Latinx immigration agents.
Today more than any period in history, the line-level divisions of federal immigration law enforcement agencies reflect the demographics of the populations they police. Across agencies like Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Latinxs are over-represented relative to their proportion of both the overall federal workforce and the general population. In this talk, he will address how Latinx immigration agents internalize and deal with the tensions engendered by their overlapping, yet fundamentally contradictory identities; rather, how they negotiate the space between "who they are" and "what they do." Drawing on extensive fieldwork –– including interviews with, and observations of, more than sixty Latinx Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents across Arizona, California, and Texas –– he explores the careful identity work of Latinx immigration agents caught between two worlds: the police and the policed.
This event is part of a suite of scholarly activities offered by the Institute for Latino Studies throughout Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 – October 15, 2020) at the University of Notre Dame.
All events are free and open to the public.
This event recording is available in the Latino Studies ND YouTube channel.