The Specter of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 Today

Abstract: There are conspicuous similarities between the aftermath of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 for people of African descent in the United States and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids that occurred in 2025 for people suspected of being of Latinx descent. This essay explores these similarities. It advocates for more comparisons between the antebellum era and modern America by offering a brief analysis of the historical parallels between the federal government's empowering of slave kidnappers in the 1850s and the public spectacle of immigration agents capturing people they suspect of not having legal immigration status in the United States under the second Trump presidency.