With the ongoing hostilities and terror immigrant communities are facing, I thought it timely to investigate the self-image of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (or as artist Ricardo Levins Morales names them US Intimidation and Community Eradication). Turns out that three years ago, the office ICE.gov YouTube channel published a recruitment video showcasing just what exactly ICE is about.
It is an excruciating two-minute watch full of antiquated edits of floating texts and unbelievable naïve presentations of the actual “work” they do. When not explicitly calling out what is happening on screen, there is a near 100% chance that it will just be b-roll footage of a heavily militarized ICE agent crossing the screen. All the while there is a rhythmic thumping in the background, occasionally colored by a faraway brass section. When there is an explanation for the footage, it is always an image of the job done. ICE agents standing heroically in frame, or in the case of “pursuing human rights violators” section, ICE agents very slowly climbing up stairs. I am tempted to say that one of the ICE agents is chasing the other in this scene.
Never is there any problematic footage of the people and communities that they hurt: no footage of family separation, scarcely any footage of detention centers, and no (warrantless) home raids.
Where I want to draw the most attention too, though, is the professional shots of Hispanic appearing women in ICE uniform. As I read it, ICE is sending a message to the demographics it hunts telling them they are an inclusive and welcoming workspace (provided you have papers). Ignore the hostile glares from the officers in the background, there is at least token representation in the force, and that should be seen as sufficient to say there is diversity. Similar to the strategies of Warner’s Plastic Representation, ICE exercises a selective inclusion into the hegemonic picture of itself and other law-enforcement. It directly challenges the viewers probable pre-conceptions that ICE agents are all white nationalists seeking to eliminate those who, in the words of our current president, are “poisoning the blood of our country.” I cannot say it is a very successful challenge, but it is notable at least that the effort was made.
The end title card tries to tie everything and everyone together by uttering the downright slanderous statement that “we are ICE.” The hell we are.
