We could have open borders, at least with Canada, if we had a President who was actually committed to the war on terrorism.
You see, he, Ridge, and General Ashcroft, would rather fight the war on terrorism in our airports, on the airwaves, and on the internet and in the courtrooms, and subvert the Constitution, rather than goto the source.
In other words, they would rather fight the war on terrorism here in America rather than overseas. It's a lot easier to make American citizens suffer while doing whatever "for the good of the people" than going overseas and going after the extremists.
Either they believe Americans don't have the stomach for our troops going door to door in the hot spots of the world (such as the Israelis are having to do), or they'd rather increase the size/power of the government.
A world war against terrorism is a world war against evil. The United States will never have enough resources to eliminate evil from the world. Fighting such a war is futile and will eventually demoralize and bankrupt any country no matter how wealthy or well-intentioned. The United States does have enough resources to build fences and walls along its borders and to provide serious, armed patrolling of those borders. We also can reduce the number of foreigners granted visa entry into this country.
The big lie of global trade and open borders is that everyone just wants to get along. That is preposterous. Many countries are ruled by brutal, murdering dictators and unelected tyrants. Their populations are deliberately kept unarmed, poor and ignorant which is a recipe for massive unrest and violence. These are the billions of folks with no hope for a better life. Because of these realities, a very large number of the world's people are understandably prone to violence against others.
A true war on terror would have to focus on removing ALL unelected leaders in the world. The U.S. government will not even support removing ONE known unelected terrorist tyrant -Yasser Arafat. Listen to the arguments our own government makes about this. They claim removing these brutal tyrants leaves a vacuum no other decent leader is available to fill. Our own government looks at people like Arafat as the best among his people. What a cynical and hopeless position they take! The assumption underlying that kind of thinking is that the Palestinians must ALL be unredeemable anarchists, tyrants and murderers WORSE than Arafat.
Why does America have to keep picking up the world's hitchhiking troublemakers? Everyone agrees the INS and State Department are absolutely unable to properly screen the massive numbers of people being granted entry into the U.S. It is sheer madness to allow this to continue without proper screening. The borders should be sealed until a working system of screening and tracking can be installed.