In the sweeping, high-stakes theater of American demographics, the massive surge in recruitment of rural white men into federal immigration enforcement represents a fundamental reconfiguration of the labor force. At the macro-level, the current administration has treated the heartland as a reservoir for a vast “wartime recruitment” effort, doubling the size of ICE to over 22,000 agents. Yet, at the micro-level, this strategy is creating a specialized class of workers whose professional identity is built upon the dismantling of their own economic lifelines. Continue reading →