07/14/2026
Today's conversations about immigration, surveillance, and border security have deep historical roots. In a new Q&A on the UC Press Blog, historian Erica Toffoli—winner of the Western History Association's 2025 Michael P. Malone Award and California History's 2024 Richard J. Orsi Prize—discusses her award-winning research on how the U.S. Border Patrol used photography and emerging surveillance technologies to shape public perceptions of migration throughout the twentieth century. Her work reveals how visual culture helped define ideas about sovereignty, security, and the border, offering valuable historical perspective on issues that remain at the center of public debate.
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.
