The discourse of deservingness: Racialized framing during rumored ICE raids

Abstract

On February 12–14th, 2017, there were rumors of an ICE raid in the small East Texas city of Hometown. Reports that ICE was present circulated on social media platforms and radio stations in the area. Consequently, the Latinx community had high anxiety and fear of deportation and looked to the Spanish speaking radio DJs for information and advice. In this paper, we argue that heighten threats of deportation can accentuate divisions among the Latinx community based on fallacies regarding criminality and immigration. The authors utilized a collection of qualitative data to review the racialized framing that occurs during rumored ICE raids. A discourse of deservingness based on the notion of the “good” versus “bad” immigrant was internalized by vulnerable immigrants to alleviate stress about deportation.