TODD MILLER, toddmemomiller@gmail.com, @memomillerMiller’s books include Border Patrol Nation: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Homeland Security and Empire of Borders: The Expansion of the U.S. Border Around the World. His latest piece will be posted today at The Border Chronicle on Substack.
He said today: “After the June 27 tragedy in San Antonio in which 51 migrants died in the back of sweltering tractor trailer, Texas governor Greg Abbott tweeted that the deaths were a result of President Joe Biden’s ‘deadly open border policies,’ and that they show the ‘deadly consequences of his refusal to enforce the law.’ Biden himself stated that the tragedy was ‘horrifying’ and he would send prayers, before saying ‘My administration will continue to do everything possible to stop criminal smugglers from exploiting migrants.’“Both these men on opposite sides of the U.S. political spectrum are saying the same thing: The ‘solution’ to the San Antonio tragedy is to build up, fortify, and militarize the border even more. This bipartisan cooperation is precisely what Democrat and Republicans have been doing for decades on the border. Since, for example, the implementation of the Department of Homeland Security in 2003 there has been $350 billion invested in an expensive (and profitable) border and immigration apparatus of walls, armed agents, invasive surveillance technologies, biometrics, and drones. This enforcement infrastructure has been deployed using a deterrence strategy purposely designed to make crossing the border as difficult, dangerous, and deadly as possible. Many unauthorized border crossers walk through the desert for days on foot, attempt to cross a rushing river, or hide in vehicles such as tractor trailers. Between 8,000 and 10,000 people have died crossing the U.S. Mexico border since the mid 1990s (and even that could be an undercount). As border and immigration enforcement scholar Gabriella Sanchez wrote, ‘What happened in San Antonio is not a coincidence or unprecedented. It was quite predictable.’ If officials wanted these sorts of tragedies to stop, the solution is simple: they would curtail the further fortification of the border, and allow people freedom of movement.”
