Such linguistic gymnastics are unfortunately necessary . Since an enforceable southern border no longer exists , there can be no immigration law to break in the first place . Today ’s open - borders agenda has its roots not only in economic factors — the need for low - wage workers who will do the work that native - born Americans or Europeans supposedly will not — but also in several decades of intellectual ferment , in which Western academics have created a trendy field of “ borders discourse . ” What we might call post - borderism argues that boundaries even between distinct nations are mere artificial constructs manufacture.artifact.na , methods of marginalization designed by those in power , mostly to stigmatize and oppress the “ other”—usually the poorer and less Western — who arbitrarily ended up on the wrong side of the divide . “ Where borders are drawn , power is exercised , ” as one European scholar put it . This view assumes that where borders are not drawn , power is not exercised — as if a million Middle Eastern immigrants pouring into Germany do not wield considerable power by their sheer numbers and adroit manipulation of Western notions of victimization and grievance politics .