The problem for the Democrats is that they were so reflexively against any immigration restriction proposed by Trump that they became a de facto party of open borders. Not one Democrat running in 2020 suggested, e.g., arresting or levying harsh penalties against employers who don't use e-Verify. As an open borders guy myself, I have no problem with this. I think any restriction on international movement--be it of people, goods, or services--is anachronistic and just serves to make the world poorer. But the Democrats can't have it both ways--they can't claim to oppose open borders while opposing any attempt to curb immigration and actually enforce those curbs. Either there has to be some positive platform plank with actual restrictions and the teeth to enforce them, or Democrats have to own an open borders stance.
Also, this might be pedantry, but I don't think so: we have to stop calling the United States a "nation," since it is not and never has been a nation as the term is defined in IR 101. The people calling for sealing the borders are the ones who most vocally refer to the "American nation." The calls for some type of homogeneous ethnostate through that language are unmistakable. I think we have to fight back both against that as an aspiration and, more importantly, as an inaccuracy.
The problem for the Democrats is that they were so reflexively against any immigration restriction proposed by Trump that they became a de facto party of open borders. Not one Democrat running in 2020 suggested, e.g., arresting or levying harsh penalties against employers who don't use e-Verify. As an open borders guy myself, I have no problem with this. I think any restriction on international movement--be it of people, goods, or services--is anachronistic and just serves to make the world poorer. But the Democrats can't have it both ways--they can't claim to oppose open borders while opposing any attempt to curb immigration and actually enforce those curbs. Either there has to be some positive platform plank with actual restrictions and the teeth to enforce them, or Democrats have to own an open borders stance.
Also, this might be pedantry, but I don't think so: we have to stop calling the United States a "nation," since it is not and never has been a nation as the term is defined in IR 101. The people calling for sealing the borders are the ones who most vocally refer to the "American nation." The calls for some type of homogeneous ethnostate through that language are unmistakable. I think we have to fight back both against that as an aspiration and, more importantly, as an inaccuracy.