My thoughts on borders come from my experience growing up in the US/Mexico region. The facts are that neither Ciudad Juarez nor El Paso could flourish without each other; they’re linked territory where the idea of “country” and “state” has always been blurred. This doesn’t mean that people aren’t aware of difference, boundary, and color. On the border, color and difference can be striking. When push comes to shove, however, most people realize that tensions are real but that symbiosis is also a reality.
The nearest city to El Paso is Juarez, Mexico and most people that I know in El Paso have a pretty wide territory that circles into New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and Chihuahua, Mexico, a very different regional sense than in New England. This spatial sense makes immigration policy difficult normalize. We shouldn’t come at international relations from a “policy” perspective. We should, indeed, avoid policy altogether.