Immigration Policing: Racial Profiling In The United States

After reading this article, I learned several things that I did not know about how immigration policing is handled in the United States. I feel like it is not a fair system because they make immigrants out to be lower class citizens. The media portrays immigrants as “criminals” that are ruining the country. However, in reality, a majority of these people are hidden within communities trying to live out normal lives. Police officers makes this difficult because these individuals are easily targeted on a daily basis. ICE, which is the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a.k.a. the immigration police, make an effort to search for these people. Racial profiling has become a norm in America for people of color. When I was in high school and I heard the word “immigrant,” I automatically assumed that these people were Hispanics from Mexico. As I grew older, I learned that an immigrant can be anyone that is not from America. The highest immigrant populations that migrate to the United States are Hispanics, Africans, and Asians. The states that these immigrants highly populate are New York, California, and Arizona, which are close to all the U.S. borders.
I hear about it all the time from family members, friends, and even on social media. I have never had it happen to me (yet), but I know that if I were an African-American male, it would have already happened by now. I feel somewhat sorry for law enforcement because they are trained that people of color are violent, and to be cautious with them. I know this because in nursing, I hear the same thing. Of course, I know that this is not always true because you have to be aware of your surroundings at all times with