While presenting what the new National Migration Agency will be, which will be based on the Ministry of Security, Patricia Bullrich, in charge of this portfolio until December 1, stated that Argentina is moving towards a new way of managing its policies and that this is “a common practice all over the world.”
Transferring tasks from the Ministry of Interior to the security orbit does not only mean a qualitative shift, but also more authority and resources. According to Open Budget data, the National Directorate for Migration has, as of November 2025, a total of $150 billion. In 2026 — if the project is approved as originally presented by the executive branch — about $181 billion will be available.
Bullrich cited the European Union and the United States, among other countries, as examples to follow. In these cases, it’s not just a matter of changing the paradigm: the border control industry generates billions of dollars annually. According to a recent article published by the Mixed Migration Center (MMC, a center specializing in research on this topic), during the year 2025, businesses will represent about 70 billion.
This industry, as Fundación por Causa explains, “has its origins in the censorship policies of the European Union and its member states, and is a multi-million dollar business financed with public money.” It works with a small number of companies that sell products and services to the state ranging from “border fences, security cameras and detention centers to uniforms and translators.”
A report by the Transnational Institute (TNI) identifies 23 companies as the main beneficiaries of this new model: the majority of them are American, but some companies from Israel and France appear to be the most important. Among them are Geo Group and CoreCivic, which operate detention centers for the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service and which, according to Forbes, saw after Trump’s victory an increase of more than 75% in the value of their shares.
The document prepared by Fortune also highlights the beneficiary of Northrop Grumman, which was awarded by Carlos Menem’s government in 1999 to develop a national airspace radar plan that ultimately never materialized.
Another market segment is “smart borders”: which offers services in a wide range of technologies, such as biometrics (fingerprint detection and iris recognition), phone tracking systems and social networks.
Finally, they point out that advisory and audit services “represent a more hidden aspect,” but they can influence the development of these policies that are trending in most parts of the world. In any case, they concluded, “financing depends on our money.”
In announcing the new agency, Bullrich explained that Argentina enjoys a distinguished position, and that it has been able to control the progress of organized crime. Almost immediately afterward he said: “You know that this reality today is beyond us.” However, out of the $181 billion planned for 2026, the Immigration Directorate allocated $164 billion to the income and expenditure control function, and $3,812 million to technological enhancement.