I live in Virginia. I sometimes enter Maryland by crossing the bridge that spans the Potomac River, which forms part of the border between the two states. There is no border-control station at which Maryland officials require me to stop and be subjected to questions and have my vehicle searched. There are also no border patrol agents patrolling the border to ensure that no one is entering Maryland illegally.

That's what "open borders" means. No border checkpoints. No border guards. No stopping vehicles to examine people's papers or search their vehicles. Simply unrestricted movements of people across a border.

Having lived more than 3 decades in a bordertown along the Texas-Mexican border, I can attest that that is definitely not the situation when one crosses the border from Mexico to the United States. When one crosses one of the bridges that spans the Rio Grande, one encounters a massive border-control station, where border guards stop vehicles, demand to see proper papers, and subject both people and vehicles to intensive and intrusive searches.

That's not all. Since migrants are determined to circumvent those border-control stations, tens of thousands of Border Patrol agents patrol the borderlands to catch, arrest, prosecute, and deport them. These agents have been vested with the power to enter onto private farms and ranches, including those located many miles from the border, without search warrants to search for illegal immigrants.

There are also fixed highway checkpoints that require vehicles that have never entered Mexico to stop, respond to questions, produce papers, and be subjected to a warrantless search.

There are also roving Border Patrol stops and searches, where vehicles are stopped at random and subjected to questioning and search.