Immigration Control as a (False) Security Measure

US immigration policy as defined during the administration of George W. Bush was the result of a moral panic against two categories of immigrants: Latin Americans who cross the Mexican border clandestinely in search of work and Muslims and Arabs whom the administration defines as potential terrorists. The policy harms both groups and threatens national security. Antiterrorist measures are counterproductive because they create sympathy to terrorism in law-abiding Muslim and Arab immigrants; border control measures are counterproductive because, far from deterring illegal immigration, they encourage longer stays, family migration, and dispersion throughout the USA, and endanger the lives of those entering the country through inaccessible and dangerous border areas