{"id":786040,"date":"2026-05-10T07:20:29","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T07:20:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/786040\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T07:20:29","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T07:20:29","slug":"most-ghoulish-things-we-saw-at-phoenix-border-security-expo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/786040\/","title":{"rendered":"Most ghoulish things we saw at Phoenix Border Security Expo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like a litter of kitties around a milk bowl, government and business leaders assembled in Phoenix on Tuesday and Wednesday. They were there for the immigration industrial complex\u2019s annual Border Security Expo<\/a>, where they patted themselves on the back for closing the southern border and helping President Donald Trump implement mass deportations across the country \u2014 all at a staggering price to the American taxpayer.<\/p>\n

Civil unrest and civilian dead<\/a>. Citizens beaten, pepper-sprayed<\/a> and unlawfully detained. The Constitution treated like toilet paper. Immigration detainees imprisoned in Third World-style conditions<\/a>. These are the proud accomplishments of the Trump administration\u2019s war on immigrants. And, as with every war, there are those who make bank and those who help them make bank.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown, the signature piece of the president\u2019s domestic agenda, is now unpopular with a majority of the public, according to one poll<\/a>. Still, you wouldn\u2019t know it from the more than 2,000 attendees who packed the Phoenix Convention Center to enthusiastically applaud speakers such as \u201cBorder Czar\u201d Tom Homan<\/a> and acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche.<\/p>\n

The event featured an exhibition floor with 193 vendors hawking everything from drones and military vehicles to AI services and combat boots. Many of the exhibitors have already dipped their beaks into the $170 billion allocated to immigration enforcement and border security in 2025 by the \u201cOne Big Beautiful Bill.\u201d Some were just wannabe beak-dippers, looking to make a buck.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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THANK YOU!<\/p>\n

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CLOSE\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Here are some of the most ghoulish things Phoenix New Times heard and saw at the carnival of human-herding cruelty that was the Border Security Expo \u2014 things not always ghoulish in and of themselves, but in how they might be used against others.<\/p>\n

\"tomBorder Czar Tom Homan speaks at the 2026 Border Security Expo.<\/p>\n

Border Security Expo Photo by Brian Kanof<\/p>\n

Show me the money<\/strong><\/p>\n

The two-day event kicked off with a rousing, profanity-laced tirade from Tom \u201cBagman\u201d Homan<\/a>, who is alleged to have taken a $50,000 bribe from undercover FBI agents<\/a> posing as businessmen seeking lucrative government contracts. Once Trump came into office, the DOJ \u2014 unsurprisingly \u2014 shut down the investigation. You might say Homan is the perfect mascot for an assembly of merchants and government apparatchiks looking to divvy up the immigration enforcement pie.<\/p>\n

Homan\u2019s address was full of threats, braggadocio and bullcrap. \u201cYou ain\u2019t seen shit yet,\u201d he crowed at one point. \u201cThis will be a good year. Mass deportations are coming, but as the president said from day one, criminals, public safety threats and national security threats have to be priority.\u201d But that doesn\u2019t mean everyone else is \u201coff the table,\u201d he added, claiming that \u201cabout 65% of everyone arrested right now are criminal, 35% are non-criminal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Almost the exact opposite is true, according to the numbers-crunchers at Syracuse University\u2019s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse<\/a>. The site reports that as of April 2026, more than 70% of those in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement have no criminal convictions, and of the remaining 30%, many \u201ccommitted only minor offenses, including traffic violations<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"toddActing ICE director Todd Lyons sits for a panel discussion with Customs and Border Patrol executive director Chris Holtzer (middle) and Tucson sector Chief Patrol Agent John Morris.<\/p>\n

Border Security Expo Photo by Brian Kanof<\/p>\n

Arresting citizens? Why not?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Homan was followed by a panel discussion that included acting ICE director Todd Lyons, who\u2019s leaving the post at the end of May, and Customs and Border Protection commissioner Rodney Scott. At one point, Lyons admitted that the U.S. is \u201cremoving people to countries that I didn\u2019t even know existed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Indeed, immigration detainees are being shipped off to locales other than their countries of origin, like the African nations of Eswatini and Equatorial Guinea<\/a>. Scott joked that some of those deported to obscure third-world nations are calling home, telling their friends, \u201cI just wasted $10,000 on a smuggler.\u201d Quite the rib-tickler, that Scott.<\/p>\n

Scott and Lyons later took questions from the audience. When New Times asked about an October ProPublica report<\/a> revealing that over 170 U.S. citizens have been arrested by federal authorities during immigration raids and protests \u2014 many of them brutally manhandled in the process \u2014 the pair owned the stat. \u201cWe arrest criminals, period,\u201d said Scott, adding that \u201ceveryone on the stage has arrested U.S. citizens and we\u2019ll keep doing that.\u201d Lyons doubled down as well, exclaiming, \u201cIf you put your hands on a law enforcement officer in the middle of a law enforcement operation, you\u2019re going to be arrested.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nice try, Todd, but in the examples cited by ProPublica, it\u2019s ICE and Border Patrol agents who go hands-on with Americans who \u2014 more likely than not \u2014 just happen to not be as pasty white as the panelists and who have committed no crimes, much less an immigration offense. Federal gendarmes have been caught using chokeholds<\/a> against minors, kneeing people in the back and indiscriminately using pepper spray and PepperBall guns against civilians exercising their First Amendment rights<\/a>. And, as both Ren\u00e9e Good and Alex Pretti found out the hard way, just being in the vicinity of immigration cops can be a deadly proposition.<\/p>\n

\"toddActing U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche spoke at the 2026 Border Security Expo.<\/p>\n

Gage Skidmore\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Blow \u2019em up, blow \u2019em up real good<\/strong><\/p>\n

Blanche gave a soporific address on day two of the event, forgiving his audience\u2019s possible brain fogginess \u201con a morning when I\u2019m sure at least some of you had a drink last night,\u201d assuring them, \u201cI\u2019m not telling your wives or husbands, don\u2019t worry.\u201d After all, no one parties harder than a government vendor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Blanche recently took over from the hapless Pam Bondi, who fumbled the scattershot, incomplete release of the Epstein files. Before Trump took office for the second time, Blanche served as Trump\u2019s personal attorney, unsuccessfully defending Trump against criminal charges in the Stormy Daniels hush-money case in New York while also representing Trump in federal cases involving alleged wrongdoing. He continues to earn his place at Trump\u2019s table, most recently by indicting former FBI director James Comey for allegedly \u201cthreatening\u201d the president with an Instagram post involving seashells arranged to read, \u201c86 47.\u201d<\/p>\n

During his address, Blanche echoed Lyons\u2019 bellicose pronouncements, claiming that the DOJ had brought 1,400 cases in the past year for assaults on federal officers. (He did not share how many resulted in convictions versus how many, like in the case of the Washington, D.C., man who flung a Subway sandwich at an immigration officer, were laughed out of court.) Blanche promised law enforcement officers that \u201cwe\u2019re going to make sure that nobody can touch you without facing the full wrath of the federal government.\u201d Not to belittle those actually assaulted in the line of duty, but \u201ctouch\u201d is a rather low bar.<\/p>\n

Regarding America\u2019s never-ending drug wars, Blanche assured the crowd that he would make sure they remained never-ending. \u201cFor the first time in history, we\u2019re treating them like terrorists and we\u2019re blowing them up,\u201d he said, in obvious reference to the country\u2019s constitutionally suspect military strikes against alleged drug-running boats in the Caribbean. \u201cAnd that\u2019s legal and it\u2019s right and it hopefully will create a disincentive for drug dealers to do what they\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Or unlucky fishermen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican and sometimes critic of the president, has repeatedly pointed out that the strikes are illegal, immoral and do not comport with U.S. law, which does not prescribe the death penalty for transporting illicit drugs. \u201cThis is akin to what China does, to what Iran does with drug dealers,\u201d Paul said in October.<\/a> \u201cThey summarily execute people without presenting evidence to the public. So, it\u2019s wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"aA demonstration of the VirTra training module allows users to respond to a man wielding an ax handle.<\/p>\n

Shotguns, pepperballs and shoot-em-ups<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many of the merchant booths on the floor of the exhibit hall were, admittedly, perversely intriguing \u2014 perhaps none more so than that of the Chandler-based company VirTra<\/a>, one of the sponsors of the event. VirTra creates \u201cimmersive training simulators\u201d for law enforcement agencies such as Customs and Border Protection. The VirTra exhibit featured five projection screens for a nearly 360-degree immersion into a video scenario involving an angry driver armed with an axe handle.<\/p>\n

A participant \u201cofficer\u201d stands in the center of the room with a gas-powered pistol, with which one can \u201cshoot\u201d the advancing madman, attempt de-escalation or use less lethal options, such as tear gas. CBP utilizes 47 custom scenarios, according to the VirTra employee running the computer immersion program. During one session, another employee blew away the dude with the ax handle.<\/p>\n

Another booth of note was a small one set up by the shotgun manufacturer Mossberg, which featured a specialty gun the firm is marketing to the military and Border Patrol. A mustachioed vendor pumped the 990 SkySweeper as \u201cMossberg\u2019s solution to the emerging drone threats that we\u2019re seeing all over the globe.\u201d Supposedly, the gun has a range of up to 100 yards.<\/p>\n

PepperBall\u2019s display was, as one might expect, popular with the Border Patrol crowd. The vendors there went through the display of projectile guns, modeled on paintball guns, that shoot projectiles filled with Pelargonic Acid Vanillylamide (PAV) powder. The chemical irritant can incapacitate someone briefly, painfully affecting eyesight and the respiratory system.<\/p>\n

The company also manufactures a handheld device that looks like a small flashlight and can fire one round of PAVA powder. One variant, marketed to law enforcement, comes with a pointed tungsten carbide tip that can be used to break a windshield glass, with the payload to be delivered through the opening. Civilians can buy one on Amazon, minus the tip, for $60.<\/p>\n

\"aA SHERP all-terrain vehicle at the 2026 Border Security Expo.<\/p>\n

From Ukraine with love<\/strong><\/p>\n

A number of all-terrain vehicles caught New Times\u2019 eye, chief among these being the N1200, a box-like, amphibious vehicle straight from the battlefields of the Russia-Ukraine war. Manufactured by the Ukrainian company SHERP and sold in the Western hemisphere by SHERP USA<\/a>, it\u2019s relatively lightweight at 5,000 pounds, can carry up to nine persons and paddles through bodies of water on its ginormous, balloon-like tires.\u00a0<\/p>\n

John Gavin, an executive with SHERP USA, told New Times that the N1200 is a logistics vehicle, used for \u201cextremely long range, extremely remote access to places where there\u2019s just not a road or a way to get out there.\u201d It can also be used to barrel through ice-bound rivers and lakes, even if the ice breaks. So far, Gavin said they\u2019ve only sold one to the Border Patrol, for use in North Dakota.<\/p>\n

The floor was awash with companies marketing electronic surveillance towers and drones, but the sleekest was a bright orange Wingtra 11<\/a>, a fixed-wing mapping drone on display in the Verizon booth. A Verizon employee on hand claimed the company uses the drone in cases of natural disasters and shares them with local authorities. Resembling a small stingray, the drone is actually made by a company headquartered in Switzerland.<\/p>\n

The creepiest device by far was a mobile surveillance tower sold by the Charlotte-based company Reconview<\/a>. This multi-sided beast boasts surveillance cameras, bullet-proof glass and a dark brown exterior pockmarked by dents caused by AR-15s fired at its exterior.<\/p>\n

The interior of the tower looks like a prison cell. According to photos found online, it does come in white, which might work better in Arizona. The company website promises the monstrosity is climate-controlled with both heat and air conditioning, but it would be interesting to test it out in the Sonoran Desert\u2019s sometimes 120-degree-plus summers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Like a litter of kitties around a milk bowl, government and business leaders assembled in Phoenix on Tuesday…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":786041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,409,144533,1589,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-786040","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-arizona","10":"tag-az","11":"tag-immigration","12":"tag-national-spotlight","13":"tag-phoenix","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116549073753732740","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=786040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/786041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}