The booth for TPS Armoring, which makes armored vehicles, at the 2019 Border Security Expo.
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Next-generation tech for detection of drugs and people was on display at the Border Security Expo in San Antonio.
At the 13th annual Border Security Expo, held in late March in San Antonio, U.S. Border Patrol agents shopped for surveillance drones, drone-disabling frequency guns, fiber-optic perimeter-monitoring systems, security dogs, vehicle scanners, and other gadgets to stop drugs and people from entering the U.S. illegally. Ronald Vitiello, who weeks later would resign as interim director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of a broader Department of Homeland Security purge, got the celebrity treatment. Nobody talked much about the wall.
Not long after the expo, President Donald Trump unexpectedly pulled Vitiello’s nomination to lead the agency on a permanent basis, telling reporters he wanted to “go in a tougher direction.” Vitiello’s career began in 1985 as a Border Patrol agent, and he previously served as chief of the Border Patrol under Trump.