The Neocolonial Boundary with Todd Miller historicly

The world has a lot of borders, but very few people understand what it means for the ordinary citizen and how it affects their lives. The problem this century is that these borders are not decided by people, in order to best serve them. Instead, there is a multi-tiered system that gives some humans some rights and many corporations a free-for all. Today, journalist Todd Miller, and author of Empire of Borders and Build Bridges and Not Walls, joins us to discuss the meaning of the borders and why we may need a world without borders.


Show Notes
0:43 - The Crisis at the Kenya-Tanzania borders: Tanzanian police are attempting to evict a big swath of the Massai people at the behest of a trophy hunting company.
2:15 - Ending the cliche that the immigration system is broken but working as intended.
4:15 - Orwellian technology at the border
5:50 - Border Patrol Memo from 1994 - “The border was created for mortal danger”
The preknowledge that people would die is built into the system.
7:40 - The border budget exceeded $25 billion in 2020.
10:41 - “ There were a 105,000 contracts given to private companies just by CPB and ice which was $55 billion. The $55 billion given to companies over the 12 year old span was more than the amount given between 1975-2023”
12:25 - The logistics and services by private companies. “In 2022, there were drones, unmanned aerial drones. The CPB has a contractor for predator B drones”
15:30 - Request for proposals for a small drone system equipped with a facial recognition system
16:50 - Does the US government conduct surveillance on people who have never set foot inside the US because of the border technology?
19:00 - The border patrol shot into Mexico and killed someone
23:10 - “The nothing that happens in the other 97 case (where the US border patrol shot into Mexico and killed someone), makes me think that there is impunity”
24:22 - The similarities between the US military installation and border control.
24:52 - There are no borders for corporations: The Guatemala - United Fruit Situation
25:54 - There is already an open border system for certain people, by the accident of where you are born. If you have a US passport, that opens doors for many places that if you are born in other places that is not.
30:08 - El Salvador’s iron fist and an example of the open border system for corporations with the heavy hand of brutality that ensures the corporations always get what they want!
31:20 - The Gadsen Purchase which was a gun-totting push
34:26 - Treaty of Versailles and Sikes-Picot agreement and how they randomly drew borders around the world. “I can’t even see my grandmother”
36:01 - The “border zone” where the constitutional rights are exempt
39:34 - DHS in Portland disappearing people from Bortac
42:22 - A culture of Cruelty with Border Patrol
44:39 - Facade of the enemy
46:30 - An agent with his finger on the holster
46:50 - The “hazing” of the border patrol agents where they get beaten and pepper-sprayed
A CBP trainee dies of a stroke
50:12 - A world without borders
51:13 - 77 Borders around the world since 1989
53:04 - A different world
56:15 - “Open Borders” vs “No Borders”
57:50 - The border between Kenya and Tanzania was not drawn by a single African
1:00:10 - Concerns about the Border
1:03:51 - Impact of Borders on the Environment - The DHS action plan


Check out Todd Miller’s blog “The Border Chronicles”





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