Alternative Migrant Trail 2020 Day 4 Todd Miller Empire of Borders

Today on 30 Minutes, our multipart series continues with excerpts from “In an Empire of Borders, Build Bridges, Not Walls with author and co-founder of the Migrant Trail, Todd Miller. Up first a member of the Migrant Trail Organizing Committee from New Mexico Jamie Ann Wilson introduces Todd Miller.

Journalist and author Todd Miller has researched and written about border issues for more than 15 years. He resides in Tucson, Arizona, but also has spent many years living and working in Oaxaca, Mexico. His work has appeared in the New York Times, TomDispatch, The Nation, San Francisco Chronicle, In These Times, Guernica, and Al Jazeera English, among other places.

Todd has authored four books: Build Bridges, Not Walls ( City Lights, 2021), Empire of Borders: The Expansion of the U.S. Border Around the World (Verso, 2019), Storming the Wall: Climate Change, Migration, and Homeland Security (City Lights, 2017), and Border Patrol Nation: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Homeland Security (City Lights, 2014). Todd is a contributing editor on border and immigration issues for NACLA Report on the Americas and its column “Border Wars”. Todd was active in the planning of the very first Migrant Trail and has walked many times. His forthcoming book, Build Bridges, Not Walls, draws on his twenty years of activism and reporting, calling us to imagine a world without borders.

Todd will share his insights on the global expansion of the U.S. border and its relation to policing climate-driven migration around the world.

Since 2004, a group of committed people has coordinated an annual week-long, 75-mile walk from Sásabe, Sonora, Mexico to Tucson, Arizona to call for an end to migrant deaths along the U.S.-Mexico border and to stand in solidarity with victims of global migration. In May 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, participants were unable to physically unite to remember those who have died crossing

In order to continue to raise awareness about migrant deaths and to help raise money for local border justice organizations, organizers launched an alternative Migrant Trail Walk experience to bring people together in a virtual environment. Proceeds benefitted: BorderLinks, the O’Odham Anti-Border Collective, Keep Tucson Together, and the No More Deaths Emergency COVID-19 Bond Fund. The Migrant Trail 2020 Alternative experience included a week of daily reflections, videos, podcasts, and featured speakers.

This has been part 4 of a multipart series. You can learn more about The Migrant Trail on their website and on their Facebook group.

Edited and produced by Amanda Shauger with audio provided by the Migrant Trail Organizing Committee.