American Prestige E332 - ICE and the Age of Grift w/ Alex Aviña
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Oct 28, 2025 Alex Aviña, an associate professor at Arizona State University and expert on U.S.-Latin American relations, dives deep into the contentious issues surrounding ICE and the security state. He explores how ICE evolved from the post-9/11 climate, linking it to the wars on terror and drugs. Aviña discusses the troubling intersection of surveillance technology and immigration policy, alongside the impact of Trumpism. He emphasizes the legacy of colonialism, and urges a critical view of migration's roots in U.S. foreign policy, calling for local resistance and abolition of ICE.
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ICE As Domestic Counterinsurgency
- ICE grew from post-9/11 security logic, merging the wars on terror, drugs, and migrants into a domestic counterinsurgency.
- Alex Aviña calls this convergence a campaign of ethnic cleansing targeting people of color.
Whiteness Is Flexible And Recruiting
- Whiteness in the U.S. is malleable and absorbs groups previously excluded to build alliances for exclusionary projects.
- Alex Aviña notes Border Patrol and ICE recruit agents who often resemble the populations they target.
Border Policing Comes Inland
- The U.S.–Mexico border practices are spreading into interior cities, turning the whole country into a constitution-free zone.
- Aviña argues ICE is bringing border-style enforcement into places like Chicago and Los Angeles.
