It is a sensitive topic, actually. Specially in the United States and Europe.
On one hand, there should be clear and strong immigration laws and legal path for those who seek to move into a new country in the correct way, on the other hand those who are desperate enough to risk their life and freedom also are supposed to be considered, they are human beings after all.
A Border is not only about drug smuggling or illegal activity, there are also cultural and human barriers which should not let us forget we all bleed and suffer the same way as human beings.
I agree with you the problem is not in the border being opened or closed, the problem is what are the laws and regulations that have been put in place to regulate the activities and check both entry and exit of a country's border to checkmate if everything follows governments policy and laws, border mean a lot to a country since that is the door to the country it must be safe guided if not a country can lose their freedom through
Unchecked access in some borders, like in my country where the land border has been freely accessed by foreigners from other close countries and thahas affecteded the security situations here as the is a high rate of arms smuggling for illegal use.
Besides the smuggling and the illegal stuff which can happen because bad people take advantage of the desperation of others, there is also the theory about the cultural impact the massive immigration can have on a country, some people say the impact can be possitive or negative.
I personally think it can be both, because immigration bring both bad and good people, but we should never discriminate based on skin color,.religion or nationality. We are all human, after all.
You are right Hispo, boarders have both their positive and negative impact to a country. Illegal activities is part of human nature due to the way we find ourselves in the other side of life. It is not everyone that will enter a house through the front door, some will follow the back door and some from the window. What I mean is that all fingers are not equal and therefore migrants migrate not have the legal access to a neighboring country but through the boarders, these migrants can have easy access to such country to add labour force to that country's economy. Smuggling is what is mostly common within boarders,I don't know if am correct with this statement because in my country this is what happens in our boarders.