Physical Control of the International Border
Credit: Rebekah Zemansky
The reason that physical control of United States borders is essential to the success of past, present and future legislation emerges from the fundamental nature of immigration as a physical process. The verb, “immigrate,” in the context of this discussion, necessarily entails the physical movement of a person or persons into the geographic territory of the United States from geographic territory that lies outside the physical borders of the United States.
The phenomenon that is commonly known as immigration is not confined in the ethereal world of ideas: It is a physical reality. Therefore, physical control of borders and other points of entry, such as airports and seaports, is essential to immigration law enforcement and the establishment of any kind of immigration policy.
By the same token, physical apprehension and detention of aliens who are in the United States without permission (i.e. without lawful immigration status) are enforcement actions necessary to effectively remove such persons from the United States if such persons are not eligible for relief from removal. Clearly, reliance on individual voluntary compliance with a removal order under some sort of honor system without a means of physically enforcing such order is unrealistic.
One analogy that might help the reader to comprehend the nature of immigration as a physical process is to imagine a broken water pipe below a perfectly operational faucet. Regardless of how the faucet is adjusted to control the flow rate, the water will continue to flow unaffected by the faucet articulation through the broken pipe below it, in proportion to whatever pressure or force is driving it.
A similar analogy can be applied to comprehend quality control of immigration into the United States. For example, it seems reasonable to presume that most United States citizens don't want violent criminals and terrorists to enter the United States. The immigration law designates these categories of undesirable aliens as inadmissible and deportable, functioning like a filter system that removes impurities from water. United States immigration law and, indeed, the immigration laws of other nations are designed to ensure that only desirable aliens are allowed to enter and remain in the United States and in other nations. Again, if the pipe below the filter system is broken so that the flow of immigration is uncontrolled and circumvents the filter system it does not matter how enlightened the concept and carefully crafted the design of the filter might be. Failure to physically direct the flow through the filter renders the filter useless.
Unless I am mistaken, the United States has the most generous immigration policy in the world due to the availability of a plethora of immigrant and nonimmigrant visas provided by law.
However, it does not matter what criteria for legal immigration Congress specifies in legislation, or whether more or less immigration is desired, if physical control of national borders does not exist.
Without physical control of United States borders and entry points, the physical phenomenon of immigration will occur at its own pace and composition of persons, subject only to random forces of nature and changing world and domestic events. In this circumstance, United States immigration law and policy exist only in theory and for practical purposes are irrelevant.