Women of Color in Immigration Enforcement

The University of Nevada’s 2021 symposium issue has been released. The topic: Race AND Gender AND Policing.

My contribution to the symposiums is called Women of Color in Immigration Enforcement. Here’s the abstract:

Immigration enforcement agencies are among the most racially diverse in federal law enforcement. More than half of all women holding law enforcement positions within immigration agencies are minorities, though the overall number of female agents is relatively small.

This Essay focuses on women of color in immigration enforcement. It begins with a necessary primer on immigration enforcement. Next, it traces key developments that led to the diversification of immigration enforcement, including analysis of never before published data about the racial and gender diversity of immigration agents. Then, it considers the unique benefits of hiring women of color as enforcement agents and notes barriers to the recruitment and retention of women of color by immigration enforcement agencies.

This Essay is largely descriptive, offering a picture of immigration enforcement and the role that women of color play in it. My hope is that this Essay will serve as a jumping-off point for empirical research regarding a before-now understudied segment of the immigration enforcement workforce.

Here’s a poster summary of the piece that I made for an OU event:

Super excited to see this piece in print!

-KitJ