Why Borders Matter for National Identity

Without Boundaries, There’s No Belonging

Photo by Greg Bulla on Unsplash

As a legal immigrant to the United States who waited eighteen long years to become a citizen, I often surprise people with my views on immigration and national sovereignty. Some assume that my journey would make me sympathetic to open borders or lenient immigration policies. They could not be more mistaken. My journey did not teach me that America should open her gates to anyone who wishes to enter. It taught me that what makes America beautiful, and worth waiting for, is precisely that she has gates, and that those gates mean something.

The Paradox of Compassion Without Order

In recent years, the idea of borders has been vilified as xenophobic, outdated, or even immoral. We are told that a wealthy nation like the United States has a moral duty to open its doors to the world’s poor and oppressed. Under the Biden administration, millions crossed our southern border, many making dubious claims for asylum. Today, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) faces protests from activists who demand not reform but abolition. To them, the very act of defining who belongs within our nation’s borders is an injustice.

But let’s ask the simple, moral question: What is compassion without order? What is generosity without boundaries? What is love without commitment?

When we erase the lines that define belonging, we don’t create inclusion, we create confusion. A home without walls is not more hospitable; it’s unlivable. Likewise, a nation without borders is not more compassionate; it’s unsustainable. Love of neighbor does not mean the abolition of home, it means the stewardship of it.

The Spiritual Meaning of Boundaries

Boundaries are not a human invention, they are a divine principle. In Genesis, God separated light from darkness, land from sea, and nations from nations. Every act of creation involved distinction and order. When man defies this divine pattern, chaos follows. To say that a country should have no borders is to reject one of the most basic laws of nature and of God.

The same applies to personal life. We set boundaries to protect our values, our families, and our peace. When a parent teaches a child not to run into the street, it’s not oppression, it’s love. The boundary is a form of care. A nation’s border functions the same way: not as a weapon of exclusion, but as an act of stewardship. It protects citizens from harm, preserves culture, and maintains the integrity of national life.

From Patriotism to Chaos

When President Trump first proposed a border wall, the chorus of criticism was immediate and unrelenting. He was labeled racist, xenophobic, and cruel. But years later, even some critics now admit that border security is essential. We have seen the consequences of neglect: overwhelmed border towns, fentanyl flooding our streets, and human trafficking rings thriving in the shadows. These are not theoretical problems, they are the fruit of moral confusion.

The left’s vision of borderlessness may sound compassionate in a university seminar or activist rally, but in practice it devastates communities. It punishes law-abiding immigrants like me who respected the process. It cheapens citizenship, the sacred covenant between a people and their nation. And worst of all, it weakens the very unity that binds us as Americans.

Patriotism cannot thrive in a borderless land. Unity requires identity, and identity requires distinction. Without a shared understanding of who “we” are, there can be no “us” to defend, no “home” to protect, and no nation to love.