Trump's imaginary border crisis

Since my sweeping dismissal of the president’s case is bound to raise hackles on the Trump-loving right, let me lay my cards on the table: I do not support open borders. I consider any public figure or pundit who does to be profoundly unserious at the levels of both practical politics and philosophical reflection on the nature of human society. I favor relatively high levels of legal immigration but also think it’s perfectly legitimate for a country to lower those levels in response to public opinion.

If there were a true shift in public sentiment against immigration — which, believe me, there would be if there were a genuine national security crisis on the southern border — I would consider it acceptable for the president to respond to that shift, making it more difficult for migrants to enter the country, maybe even with the strengthening and expanding of physical barriers in some places.

But that is not at all what is happening. On the contrary, public opinion has shifted in favor of immigration since the president was elected, no doubt in large part because of the above-mentioned ineptitude and malice the administration has displayed toward immigrants over the past two years. That has, if anything, put the cause of immigration restrictionism in a weaker position politically than it was when he was running for president.