Half of border agents are Latino, and they are part of a long history of Hispanic support for – and enforcement of – harsh immigration policies
Why? Latinos have often occupied an uneasy middle ground in American society – subject to discrimination and exclusion, yet also susceptible to appeals that promise belonging, security and status. Like every other group, they can embrace political movements that harm others and sometimes even themselves.
This precarity is why Latinos join immigration enforcement agencies in such large numbers. For years, scholars and historians have tried to find other explanations, including economics and stable employment, a desire to serve their communities and seeking proximity to whiteness. But these capture only part of the story.
The phenomenon began as early as the 1950s, when prominent Latino leaders and organizations supported deportation campaigns such as Operation Wetback, which sought to remove hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants (and their citizen family members) from the country. Their support was often rooted in not entirely unfounded fears of labor competition; US employers routinely used migrant labor to undermine unions, suppress wages and break strikes.
It’s very interesting to hear your perspective. They’re getting hit by propaganda, that’s for sure, and I see a lot of Mexican-American men in Los Angeles acting the same way. There is definitely a toxic masculinity problem for young Latino men, as bad or worse than White men.
I’m not sure if half your county is lost, but without proper education and upward social mobility they may remain ignorant. Poverty and religion tends to promote ignorance, and Mexico has a lot of that. At least your president and government seems to be doing a fantastic job from what I can tell (although the bar is pretty low). Universal healthcare, public support for affordable EVs… uh, their own national chocolate production(?), I hear a lot of things almost every week. It might not change overnight but that’s how you push for better future generations.