The border should be “defamiliarized,” as it is “ethically indefensible,” Georgetown Law Professor Sherally Munshi said at an Arizona State University event Wednesday.
In her talk, titled “Unsettling the Border,” Munshi said critics of today’s border policies are often brushed off with a knee-jerk question: “What, do you want open borders?” To her, this isn’t a serious attempt to engage; it’s a shutdown tactic that dodges honest discussion.
Worse, she said, this is a flawed question because it skips over deeper issues about who gets to cross borders and why. Instead of digging into questions about what’s morally or practically right—the debate assumes borders are a given, unquestioned backdrop, she said.