Dozens gathered outside Esports Stadium Arlington Wednesday with signs and megaphones to protest a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement hiring event held there.
They gathered behind metal barricades set up in the stadium’s driveway, across from the main entrance. As applicants walked into the building, the protesters booed and shamed them for applying.
Protestors like Tasha Bee said they hoped the jeers and calls to just turn around and leave would convince some people not to go through with submitting an application.
“I'm hoping that they see that this is not what their neighbors, their family members, their community members want and think twice about accepting this as a job if they even get the offer at all,” Bee said.
The federal agency tasked with enforcing immigration law has been decried for some of its methods, including hiding officers’ identities, expanding operations in schools and churches, arresting parents in front of their children and detaining US citizens.
That’s why Enyssa Banda was outside the stadium protesting the hiring event Wednesday.
“We believe in due process and not every person of color, is a criminal, you know?” Banda told KERA News. “But they're just racially profiling people who are walking the streets or driving to work or taking their kids to school. That's not right.”
Wednesday was the second day of the hiring event. Banda said that on Tuesday there were around 40 protestors. Though people came and went Wednesday, the total number appeared to be around the same.
The hiring expo targeted potential deportation officers and general attorneys, according to the description provided by ICE on usajobs.gov.
The description told potential applicants the agency may do on-the-spot hiring and described the open positions as an “opportunity to step directly into a career that makes a difference.”
ICE told KERA News in an email Wednesday evening that it had not yet compiled the number of applicants or how many jobs were offered on the spot, but would provide those figures when they become available.
Bee said she feels those jobs do make a difference, just not a positive one. Most of the people walking into the building seemed to be men and Bee said she thinks they were attracted to the jobs by the possibility of protecting and providing for their family and country.
“We are brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, friends, neighbors, and this does not protect or provide for us, this, as a country, takes away all of that,” Bee said. “What benefit do we get from this overzealous, unrestrained enforcement? Nothing."
The protest was largely met with no response from those walking in and out of the building Wednesday. Some people shouted back or recorded the protesters.
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