As feds seek more immigration agents, Provo job fair draws foes of ongoing crackdown

KEY TAKEAWAYS

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security held a job fair in Provo, seeking applicants for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other agencies.
A contingent of protestors demonstrated outside, targeting ICE, which is spearheading the nationwide crackdown on illegal immigration.
A pair of attendees defended the crackdown, with one saying the effort is focused on criminal immigrants in the country illegally.

PROVO — A microcosm of the broader debate focused on the ongoing immigration crackdown across the country unfolded in Provo at a federal job fair organized by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The department hopes to fill as many as 10,000 new spots in Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and aside from job seekers, the DHS Career Expo on Tuesday drew a contingent of demonstrators opposed to the intense push to deport immigrants in the country illegally. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, overseen by the Department of Homeland Security, enforces U.S. immigration law and has been the driving force behind President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.

"You know, 70% of the people that ICE is detaining have no criminal record. They're just coming here for the chance of the American Dream, and they should be given the chance to do so, especially if they're law-following citizens," said Natassja Grossman, one of the dozen or so demonstrators. The DHS job fair was held Monday and Tuesday at the Utah Valley Convention Center in Provo's city center.

Neither DHS nor ICE officials responded to queries seeking comment, and the media was not allowed to enter the job fair site. Two of the job seekers who attended the job fair on Tuesday, however, offered their thoughts as they departed.

Natassja Grossman, left, and a handful of other demonstrators protested U.S. immigration policy outside the site of a Department of Homeland Security job fair at the Utah Valley Convention Center in Provo on Tuesday. (Photo: Tim Vandenack, KSL.com)

Nadia Miller, who recently graduated from Utah Valley University with a bachelor's degree in forensic science, said the backlash the crackdown has prompted among some doesn't put her off.

"Not at all — if anything, it makes me want to apply more," she said. Her parents are immigrants from South America, "and now they're citizens. So I believe in that process of doing it correctly."

Likewise, another job seeker — who works at a law enforcement agency and didn't give his name because he doesn't want to get in trouble with his bosses — said he's worked with some of the federal agents involved in the crackdown locally. Like Miller, he backs their efforts, and he visited the job fair on Tuesday to look into opportunities to get an Immigration and Customs Enforcement job.

"I go to a taco truck stand for lunch. I'm sure that person is not here legally. We're not going after them. We buy the food and move on," he said. "But the dudes that we are consistently stopping in these cars, in these houses, have rap sheets a mile long. They have violent history, they have drug history, they have all of that."

The demonstrators gathered at the northwest corner of Center Street and Freedom Boulevard, outside the Utah Valley Convention Center, holding signs critical of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They also called on job applicants as they entered the job fair to reconsider the possibility of working for the agency. "Don't do it. You're better than that," one of the protestors said.

David Sanchez, another demonstrator, portrayed immigrants as law-abiding residents, countering the message put forward by some critics of immigrants in the country illegally that they pose a security risk and are sapping the country's resources. "It's not a crime to sell flowers. It's not a crime to sell fruit. That's a life opportunity to people. People are earning money for families. They're not hurting nobody. They're not selling no drugs on the street," he said.

Carl Moore, another demonstrator, made an appointment to enter the job fair but said he was ultimately forced out. As he left, he argued with security agents posted outside the Utah Valley Convention Center to maintain order.

As an advocate for the Native American community, he said his message focused on what he believes to be the hypocrisy of U.S. government agents determining who can and can't enter the country.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents "are here to keep people from coming in, crossing a border illegally, when this whole country started with illegal immigration," he said, referencing the arrival of the first Europeans centuries ago to what was then thought of as the New World. "They're being hypocritical. They're saying it's OK for us to do it, but it's not OK for them to do it."

While Immigration and Customs Enforcement was the main target of protestors, the website for the job fair said the Department of Homeland Security was seeking applicants for several federal agencies. They also include Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Secret Service and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, among others.

A handful of demonstrators protested U.S. immigration policy outside the site of a Department of Homeland Security job fair at the Utah Valley Convention Center in Provo on Tuesday. (Photo: Tim Vandenack, KSL.com)

Miller said there weren't many opportunities at the job fair for work with the federal government in forensic sciences, though she got some good resume advice. The law enforcement employee who was looking into a job with Immigration and Customs Enforcement said he was told agency officials would be in touch.

"We got your resume. Fill out the information. ... We'll send you an email," he said, alluding to their message to him.

More than $83 billion in Trump's budget bill, inked into law in July, is earmarked for border security and enforcement and includes funds to hire as many as 10,000 more Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

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