The Border Chronicle Weekly Roundup: May 8
Todd witnesses a border security spending frenzy at the annual Border Security Expo in Phoenix, a Q&A with the author of a new book on El Paso's importance to U.S. history and immigration, and much more!
Weekly Roundup
The Border Chronicle Weekly Roundup: May 8
Todd witnesses a border security spending frenzy at the annual Border Security Expo in Phoenix, a Q&A with the author of a new book on El Paso's importance to U.S. history and immigration, and much more!
3 min read
For more than a decade, Border Chronicle Cofounder Todd Miller, has covered the annual Border Security Expo, where government officials meet private industry to determine how billions of taxpayers dollars will be spent on the ever-growing border security industry, which disproportionately impacts border communities.
This year, was beyond anything Todd had experienced with Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement spending a record-shattering amount of money on private contractors. It is only May, and the two agencies have already earmarked $25.8 billion in contracts—nearly tripling the previous record of $9.8 billion, in 2023.
At the conference, a DHS official said they plan to spend at least 75 percent of the $191 billion that Trump and the Republican Congress have given them by the end of the 2026 fiscal year — a lightning pace for government spending, and an obscene amount of money, much of which is being diverted from Medicaid, and other health care and social safety net programs. And with almost no oversight from Congress as to how the money is being spent. I encourage you to read Todd's full account of the Border Security Expo below:
Spectacle Becomes Reality: Observations from This Year’s Border Security Expo
Come get a glimpse of the inner workings of the border industrial complex with these photos, text, and a video tour of the exhibition hall at the end. You will also learn about the national border security awards and who won person of the year.
Todd Miller
The Southwest’s Ellis Island: A Q&A with Jazmine Ulloa, author of El Paso
“The history of migration through El Paso is one that’s been forgotten and overlooked, even though these workers—and not just workers but intellectuals, activists, and poets—helped shape the American Southwest as we know it today.”
Caroline Tracey
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Read next
Spectacle Becomes Reality: Observations from This Year’s Border Security Expo
Come get a glimpse of the inner workings of the border industrial complex with these photos, text, and a video tour of the exhibition hall at the end. You will also learn about the national border security awards and who won person of the year.
The Southwest's Ellis Island: A Q&A with Jazmine Ulloa, author of El Paso
"The history of migration through El Paso is one that’s been forgotten and overlooked, even though these workers—and not just workers but intellectuals, activists, and poets—helped shape the American Southwest as we know it today."
The Border Chronicle Weekly Roundup: May 1
Happy May Day! An audio deep dive into the National Defense Areas and a human rights archeologist speaks on the politics of haunting and border deaths.
A Q&A with Human Rights Archaeologist Gabriella Soto
“For a long time, a big proportion of the American public said that border security was their most important issue. People are starting to realize what that means in terms of the violence entailed.”