The Job I’ll Never Do: A Line in the Sand

Happy New Year from Your Favorite Blogger! It is my sincerest hope that 2026 is the best year of all of our lives. Never want to stay away from controversy, today’s first post of 2026 addresses a very hot-button topic of the moment…

As WordPress continues to recycle old prompts, I pulled another prompt from The Coffee Monsterz Co to respond to today

What is one job you would never do?

There are plenty of jobs I cannot do. Many of them I simply lack the talent for; others I’m now simply too old for. Of course, some—like being a professional baseball player—fall into both categories.

But there is one job I would never take on, even if I were younger, even if I were more physically fit: working as an ICE agent. For those reading from outside the United States, ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) is the federal law enforcement branch tasked with border and immigration control.

A Legacy of Service

I have all the respect in the world for law enforcement. The Old Man was a police officer, and it wasn’t until I was older that I realized he was quite literally putting his life on the line every single day to put food on our table and clothes on my back. In addition, he also served in the United States Army previous to his career in law-enforcement. Likewise, I have immense admiration for anyone willing to enlist in our Armed Forces and serve our country, particularly in active combat.

To be fair, I don’t even have a problem with the notion of law enforcement dealing specifically with immigration and customs. The problem is that ICE, in its current state, has operated with a startling lack of oversight, accountability, and transparency. It isn’t just about the record number of deportations; it’s about the documented instances where they have detained—and even deported—legal residents and United States citizens.

I saw a graphic recently that perfectly encapsulates these contradictions:

These are hard words to read, and they are even harder to write, but staying silent while the ‘bully mentality’ takes over is no longer an option for me.

Kicking the Can

But beyond the agency itself, there is a deeper hypocrisy at play that politicians have spent decades “kicking the can down the road.”

We hear a lot about “law and order,” but we rarely talk about the economic engine that relies on the very people we’re deporting. The reality is that immigrant labor is the reason many of the essentials in this country remain affordable. From agriculture to construction, undocumented workers take on the grueling, physically demanding jobs that most Americans simply refuse to do.

And yet, we rarely ask the “Why?”

Why are conditions in other countries so desperate that people are willing to risk their lives just to reach our border? And why are millionaire CEOs more than willing to exploit that desperation—paying subpar wages to avoid the “burden” of providing a living wage or healthcare to American citizens?

It is far easier to fund a “secret police force” to round people up than it is to hold corporations accountable for their exploitation. It’s easier to blame the migrant than to fix the system that demands their labor while denying their humanity.

Barring a fundamental overhaul of how we conduct our affairs, I would never willingly work for ICE—certainly not in its current incarnation. I don’t care how much they paid, or if they offered to wipe out my student loans in full. Some things aren’t for sale, and my conscience is one of them.

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The article “The Job I’ll Never Do: A Line in the Sand” first appeared on Rebuilding Rob.

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One response to “The Job I’ll Never Do: A Line in the Sand”

Dr Banerjee

January 1, 2026

This is an interesting provocation because it refuses the easy polarity of “for” or “against”. Rob situates his refusal not as a categorical denunciation of all work in immigration enforcement, but as a moral boundary shaped by specific institutional behaviours and documented abuses. That matters because drawing a line in the sand in this context is less about aesthetics or personal preference and more about the ethical economy of labour and power.

The respect he expresses for service and the risks of law enforcement is not condescension, but it prevents the critique from collapsing into simplistic denunciation. It recognises that every job, especially those with coercive authority, is entangled with real social goods and real harms. His reluctance to participate in ICE as presently constituted stems from an awareness that systems shape actions as much as individuals do. There is a subtle nuance here that too often gets lost in online discourse.

I’d push the reflection a step further by asking how we think about institutional reform versus individual refusal. Is a line in the sand always a final boundary or can it be a strategic position that invites interrogation of the structures that make certain roles harmful in the first place?

Appreciate the clarity of articulation and the willingness to name discomfort without resorting to caricature.

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