Empathy, morality, and criminality: the legitimation narratives of U.S. Border Patrol agents

• Published in: Journal of ethnic and migration studies 2018-11, Vol.44 (15), p.2544-2561
• Main Author: Vega, Irene I.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agents; Ambiguity; Authority; Border patrol; Borders; Bureaucracy; Coercion; Criminality; Criminalization; Discourses; emotion; Empathy; Enforcement; Ethics; Function; Immigrants; Immigration; Legitimacy; Legitimation; Migrants; Morality; Narratives; Social categories; Social function; Sympathy; Uncertainty
• ISSN: 1369-183X; 1469-9451
• DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2017.1396888

Border enforcement is a morally ambiguous and politically contentious state practice. Frontline enforcers experience this contentiousness as a threat to their moral authority. This article draws on interviews with U.S. Border Patrol agents to examine their legitimation work, the justificatory narratives they deploy to establish their moral authority and legitimacy of the system they represent. Agents' legitimation narratives centre on two strategies: disputing immigrants' morality (i.e. 'criminalisation' and 'uncertainty') and establishing their own morality through compassionate discourses ('caring control'). By helping agents resolve moral ambiguities and reputational issues, these narratives restore the legitimacy of the U.S. immigration control system. In turn, this legitimacy serves as the normative foundation for agents to continue with an uncritical performance of their professional mandates. While the narratives function similarly across agents' social categories, Latinos cluster in the caring control narrative. This patterns reveals how legitimacy issues can be racialised, incentivising different legitimation strategies within the same organisation. Overall, this analysis provides a window into the normative principles that guide agents' actions and shape migrants' interactions with the coercive arm of the state.