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.
I wouldn’t say force them, as much as manipulate them to do it. Trick them with promises and prizes they’ll never attain, while throwing obstacles in their way to attaining prosperity, and you can get them to fight one another willingly.
It’s easy to take advantage of people who lack critical thinking skills, as that isn’t taught in primary education.
The very few who do manage to claw their way to the top off exploiting others, become part of the problem as they pull the ladder up from behind them.