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!
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:
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More News from Across the Border:
How the unreported killing of an American by ICE shattered two Texas families The Texas Tribune
Woman recalls medical emergencies, low food quality and retaliation in ICE custody Daylight San Diego
Activists question immigration arrests of Disney cruise ship workers at San Diego pier Daylight San Diego
‘I can’t even sleep’: Arizona immigrant hit with $1.8M fine for staying in US Arizona Mirror
Border wall contractor bulldozed & ‘desecrated’ native sacred site in Southern Arizona Tucson Sentinel
ICE Keeps Detaining the Same US Citizen Again, and Again, and Again. He’s Fighting Back. Mother Jones
‘Deplorable’: ICE hires firm accused of ‘torture’ to track down undocumented children The Guardian
‘Hondurasgate,’ the alleged US and Israeli interference plot to destabilize Mexico and other progressive governments El Pais
The limbo of the Diablos,the firefighters from the US–Mexico border El Pais
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