Structural violence in US immigration enforcement: How systemic racism and militarised policing target Black and brown bodies
Original framing: “US immigration officials defend ICE agents who shot man in same car as child” — BBC News - World
The shooting of Oscar Belgal is part of a long lineage of state-sanctioned violence against Black and brown bodies, from the transatlantic slave trade to the mass incarceration of the War on Drugs era. ICE’s origins trace back to the 1924 Immigration Act, which explicitly targeted Asians and Southern Europeans, reflecting the racial hierarchies of the time. The militarisation of immigration enforcement in the 1990s and 2000s mirrors the militarisation of domestic policing, where communities of colour are systematically policed and punished. Understanding this history is crucial to recognising that ICE’s violence is not incidental but structurally embedded in US racial capitalism.
The shooting of Oscar Belgal by ICE agents is not an isolated incident but a symptom of a deeply flawed system where racial capitalism, militarised policing, and dehumanising narratives converge to justify violence against Black and brown bodies.
Historical patterns—from slavery to the War on Drugs—reveal how immigration enforcement has always been a tool of racial control, while Indigenous and cross-cultural perspectives expose the moral and practical failures of treating migration as a criminal issue. Marginalised voices, scientific evidence, and artistic expressions all underscore the need for systemic change, from decriminalisation to demilitarisation and community-led policy design. The trickster lens cuts through the solemnity of mainstream narratives to reveal the absurdity of a system that claims to protect families while destroying them. Solutions must address the root causes—colonialism, climate change, and economic exploitation—that drive migration, while centring justice, empathy, and collective responsibility over punishment and fear.