In Berlin alone, which was by far the most heavily fortified part of the "Iron Curtain," more than 5,000 people successfully fled across the border despite the "Berlin Wall."
More people cross into California alone in a single Border Patrol district in a single night.
That said, I don't envision shoot on sight orders or the use of SM-70 directional mines on the American border. What I find particularly interesting is the complete reversal of positions from years ago. CSPAN has a video of Dianne Feinstein talking about border security with AG Janet Reno, and you could swear they were talking points cribbed from a Trump strategy session.
Increased immigration tends to lower wages which favors employers. OTOH, protectionist immigration policies tend to keep the status quo especially for low-skilled labor, whom you would think the DNC is pledged to protect. It's just interesting to see how political fashions have switched. Is it the fear of terrorists crossing the border or..?
> What I find particularly interesting is the complete reversal of positions from years ago.
It hasn’t reversed, though the right-wing bipartisan consensus on the issue of the early 1990s has gone.
> Increased immigration tends to lower wages which favors employers.
Immigration mostly increases and decreases by economic conditions (at home and abroad). Immigration policy mostly influences the proportion of immigrants with legal status. More immigrants with legal immigration status means immigrants are less likely to be in fear of asserting things like labor rights, whereas more without legal status means more fear of things like that.
> It’s just interesting to see how political fashions have switched.
They haven’t switched, at least not in well over a generation. Republicans have been for narrower legal immigration policies for decades (the backward-reaching amnesty under Reagan was a component of tighter forward policies). There was a brief period of general bipartisan consensus on the direction of change (though still distance on the details), but no reversal.
This has literally nothing to do with labor rights. Increase the supply of something and the cost goes down. Illegal labor gets here faster than legal labor and in uncontrollable numbers. You're right that you have to pay legal immigrants more, but given the ready supply of illegal immigrants it's not hard for an employer to look the other way.
If one wanted to control wages, one would want to ensure the unskilled labor supply was somewhat limited. Otherwise an employer can drive down to minimum wage rather easily.
One might do that by better securing the borders. I'm purposely leaving out the antiterrorist wish of at least getting some idea of who's coming in and out of Disneyland so to speak.
https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/fluchten/