Turns Out The Left Loves Borders — Just Not America’s
An opinion piece by Brianna Lyman for The Federalist argues that recent anti-ICE protests have highlighted the enduring importance of borders, even as protest movements publicly condemn border enforcement. The author points to incidents such as anti-ICE demonstrators in Minneapolis who allegedly set up a checkpoint to screen vehicles for ICE affiliation, effectively creating a de facto border and an autonomous zone in public streets. The piece uses thes examples to claim that the left’s rhetoric against borders clashes with the practical reality of exclusion and enforcement when it comes to immigration,while critics still favor border control for law-and-order reasons.
The article also contrasts public anti-border statements with private actions by celebrities like Billie Eilish. After publicly denouncing borders, eilish sought legal protection to keep a person off her property, illustrating what the author views as hypocrisy: borders and enforcement matter for personal safety, but not for national immigration policy. Lyman argues that anti-ICE protesters understand the concept of exclusion and selectively apply it, advocating for selective enforcement while opposing borders in general. The piece concludes by reaffirming that immigration laws and the border exist as Americans voted for them, and that ICE’s role is to enforce those democratically established rules.Brianna Lyman is described as an elections correspondent for The Federalist.
We’ve heard it for years: borders are immoral, no human is illegal — the whole nine. Yet in recent weeks — from anti-ICE riots in Minnesota to checkpoints and barricades and autonomous zones — the left has accidentally made the clearest case yet for why borders exist and why they matter.
Take for example that anti-ICE protesters in Minneapolis set up a checkpoint to determine which cars could pass on public streets. If the driver was not ICE or affiliated with ICE, they were allowed to pass on the public roadway, Fox News reported. According to reporter Jorge Ventura, these anti-ICE protesters were stopping vehicles and checking their license plates and driver’s licenses to determine if they were ICE-affiliated before letting them pass.
In other words, these anti-ICE agitators were creating their own de-facto borders — deciding who belongs and who doesn’t — while denouncing the very concept of federal immigration border enforcement.
If the hypocrisy wasn’t already clear, let’s not forget that protesters set up barricades — otherwise known as a makeshift border — to block off parts of Minneapolis as they created what’s become known as an autonomous zone.
Meanwhile Billie Eilish claimed on Sunday while accepting a Grammy award that “no one is illegal on stolen land.”
“F-ck ICE,” she said.
But when someone crossed the boundary (or “border”) of Eilish’s property uninvited, she didn’t ramble on about stolen land or question the immorality of borders. She ran to court and begged the government to declare that a specific person was not allowed within a certain radius of her home — and to enforce that rule. In other words, when her safety was at risk, borders (like her property line) suddenly mattered, and enforcement wasn’t something to curse but rather beg for.
But this hypocrisy isn’t unique to celebrities, it’s the core of the entire anti-ICE movement. Chants of “ICE Out” are an admission that discretion about who is in your community matters — and implies that these protesters do understand that communities must have a right to decide who is allowed inside and who is to be kept out.
These protesters fully understand the idea of exclusion, and in their case, they reserve it for federal agents enforcing laws they like, while pretending the same principle is immoral when applied to illegal immigration.
But the irony is clear. ICE exists to enforce border laws that were passed decades ago precisely because Americans decided, through a democratic process, that not everyone is allowed to enter or remain in the country.
Anti-ICE protesters and celebrities aren’t rejecting borders as a concept — they’ve already proved they understand the need for borders and in many cases, like borders.
They just reject America’s borders.
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