Bordering on Indifference

How a largely Latino/a workforce of immigration agents reconciles the moral ambiguities of its workImmigration agents have a frontline view of the racial, economic, and legal inequalities that undocumented migration reflects¿and yet most agents do not think of the role their jobs play in those inequalities. Instead, they consider themselves law enforcers, trained to confine their work strictly to crime control and security. In Bordering on Indifference, Irene Vega offers an original, detailed analysis of the rationales that shape how U.S. immigration agents understand and carry out their professional responsibilities. Drawing on interviews with ninety immigration agents¿Border Patrol Agents and ICE Deportation Officers, most of whom are Mexican-Americans from the region around the border¿Vega examines how and why they took the job and how their training and socialization shapes how they grapple with the racial and moral issues raised by their work. Vega shows that indifference is the b