In this talk, Irene Vega will present her book Bordering on Indifference: Immigration Agents Negotiating Race and Morality; comments will be provided by Hiroshi Motomura.
Friday, January 30, 2026
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
Haines, Rm 279
In “Bordering on Indifference: Immigration Agents Negotiating Race and Morality” (Princeton University Press), Irene I. Vega draws on interviews with ninety immigration agents—Border Patrol Agents and ICE Deportation Officers—to examine the institutional production of indifference in the U.S. immigration enforcement system. She argues that indifference, understood most simply as apathy or detachment, is both a taught bureaucratic strategy that agents use to look away from the most conflicting aspects of their work, as well as a major product of their efforts to cultivate a moral sense of self. In effect, indifference is one of the mechanisms that protects the status quo in immigration agents like the U.S. Border Patrol and ICE.
Sponsor(s): Center for Study of International Migration, UC Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative, UC Davis Global Migration Center, UCSD Center for Comparative Immigration Studies