"Economic Anxiety" and why people end up supporting ICE

AP Photo/Jenny Kane

Even after the horrific killing of Renee Good at the hands of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent, 40% of Americans said they viewed the agency “somewhat or very favorably” in a poll conducted January 9 to 11.

After all the documentation of ICE’s abuses, how can this be? I have a theory.

In our society, where there is a lot of “economic anxiety”—uncertainty about work and stress due to financial scarcity—people hold on very dearly to what status, money, and property they might have.

Politicians exploit this anxiety and label immigrants as “job takers” and enemies. Over time, people begin to believe this frame and see immigrants as threats to financial stability and the basal psychological wellbeing that comes with stability—a threat that must be defended against.

Violence against “the other” becomes justified—even noble. It’s not even violence—it is necessary self-defense against the ethnicity, race, background, or other than one sees as a moral, physical, or economic threat to “the tribe”, and the fact violence is used is mere proof of the danger “the other” presents, establishing a cycle of bigotry.

Politicians love these frames because they protect the wealth class that they serve. Rather than uniting to confront capital—which offshores and automates millions of jobs and which is responsible for these uncertain working conditions—poor and powerless people instead attack each other, calling for more power to be given to police agencies like ICE to control “the other”.

Two things need to be done. First, we have to ease this economic anxiety so that people are not so vulnerable to these frames. Second, we need a system to talk about immigrants not as economic competitors, but humans with whom we can work together and find common ground.