I have crossed the Southern border many times and they checked our IDs to make sure we were citizens. There are govt officials at every checkpoint. They have dogs to sniff out people hiding in trucks and so forth. The way you describe our border is as if nobody was there to monitor who comes in and goes out. At every checkpoint there is a line of cars. I find the characterization that we have an “open border” quite ridiculous.
If you want further proof that we don’t just let anyone in, take note of how our private prison system has stepped up to make profits from housing “illegal” immigrants for years at a time. They are making bank off this, and you’re acting like we don’t even HAVE immigration enforcement or laws. We already have the world’s largest immigration detention system. Being even MEANER to immigrants is just flat-out spiteful.
More evidence:
Here’s another thing you might not have considered. Most Americans were lucky enough to be born here. Most of us have never done anything to actually *earn* it. About 13% of us have actually served this country in uniform, which means about 87% have NOT. I did. Did you? Did you actually *earn* your right to be here, or have you just been coasting on the fact that you were born with more privilege than those who would like to live here? The reason I ask is because *many* immigrants who crossed our southern border illegally traveled thousands of miles *on foot* to get here. If you’ve never been to northern Mexico I can tell you that it is a massive desert that stretches for hundreds of miles (even in the mountains, there is little vegetation). By *walking* here, on their own two feet, they have earned the right to be Americans FAR more than anyone sitting on the laurels of those who came before them and gave birth to them here. A near majority of us can’t even be bothered to vote. We need more citizens who actually WANT to live here, therefore immigration can only help us. The only reason some immigrants are labeled “illegal” is because we are currently undergoing a migration of brown people. When it was mostly white people moving here, we didn’t have restrictions about how many could move here per year. When my family arrived at Ellis Island, they only had to submit to a blood test to make sure they had no communicable disease. But then my family is white and from Sweden, so we were welcomed in with open arms.