Do you support open borders?

[MineralMan]

39. Theoretically, yes. Practically? It's not practical.

In an ideal world, a world that doesn't exist, people should be free to come and go anywhere on this planet. Since we don't have that ideal world, nations have borders and control entry into those nations, to some degree or another.

That's why I have a passport, even though I have no international travel planned. The last time I was out of the country, I had to show my passport only at Heathrow, and traveled through six other countries without ever showing it at a border again. I showed it at a bank a couple of times, but never at a border, until I returned to the US, where our own border officials examined it.

Over 50 years ago, when I was in the USAF, I traveled through many countries without a passport. My military ID served that need.

People mean different things when they say "open borders." There's a whole range of definitions for that concept. Some are economic explanations. Some are immigration-focused. Every day at our land borders, north and south, thousands of people cross the border, some of them on a daily basis. Some don't leave when they are supposed to. Some aren't who their papers say they are. Our borders are not what I'd call "open borders." They're too open, though, to suit some people. Those people mean something different when they say "open borders."