UC Press Blog

Toffoli discusses the images & technologies that helped construct the Border Patrol's public image, the historical roots of today's surveillance culture along the U.S.–Mexico border, & why visual history remains essential for understanding contemporary debates over immigration & state power.

In 2020, the Baltimore Police Department had an aerial surveillance plane that could supposedly photograph and track every person in public view. Spy Plane reveals what happened with this controversial policing experiment.

By Melissa Villa-Nicholas, author of Data Borders: How Silicon Valley Is Building an Industry around ImmigrantsAround 2018, I started to read reports about increasing information technology surveillance at the U.S.-Mexico border and around the U.S. to assist in immigration detention and deportat