The body count
Four hundred thirty-seven. Migrant bodies recovered by the Border Patrol’s Missing Migrant Program in fiscal year 2022 — the highest on record. The open borders camp uses that number against us. They should not. Those people died because the border was not controlled. They died in the desert, in sealed trailers, because a system that refuses to enforce legal entry creates an underground market in human smuggling.
A nation that cannot control who enters is not a nation. It is a geographic expression. You cannot run a school system if you do not know how many children will show up in September. You cannot fund a hospital if you cannot project patient volume. Every policy the left claims to care about — healthcare, wages, schools — requires a bounded population under shared rules.
Dominican soldiers in a truck are doing what every sovereign nation does when it takes itself seriously. Florida’s labor dependency is supposed to embarrass us. It proves our point. An economy that cannot function without an illegal workforce has been built on a lie told by employers who wanted cheap labor and a public that wanted cheap strawberries.
The functional borders camp points to Schengen. Schengen’s internal openness is purchased by Frontex patrols and detention facilities. Every country that liberalized internal movement hardened the external perimeter. Openness inside requires a wall outside. They are describing our position with better branding.
American expats in Costa Rica move legally, on visas, subject to the host country’s rules. The symmetry argument confirms our logic.
Where we concede ground: We have demanded enforcement while blocking the legal infrastructure that makes it morally coherent.
What would change our mind: A comparable nation opening borders for fifteen years while maintaining wages, services, and democratic stability.
Read the full synthesis: What are borders actually for?