An Intersectional Analysis of ICE Newsroom Propaganda

• In Event: International Migration Section Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): 27. Immigration and the criminal-legal system

Abstract

Drawing on insights from the literatures on the intersectional racialization and gendering of immigration and the criminal legal system, and scholarship of propaganda, this paper examines how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) news-style articles work to justify ICE’s expansion and integration with the regular criminal legal system. This study conducts an inductive qualitative analysis of ICE Newsroom articles focused on sex crimes, gendered crime, and child endangerment. Findings reveal that ICE justifies their operations by drawing on racialized threat narratives about migrants, positioning themselves as protectors of the community (national, and local alike) and partners of regular law enforcement, and highlighting cases involving sexual violence and violence against women and children.

Author

• Emma-Claire LaSaine, University of Wisconsin-Madison