Kerby Anderson
Americans are rightly concerned about what is happening at our border. But skeptics ask whether the US can control the border. Todd Benson, in a recent PragerU video, provides some answers. He has spent the last twenty years of his life dealing with the issue of immigration, both as a reporter and as an intelligence officer in the Texas government.
From 2021 to 2024, 8 million people have entered the country illegally, and that does not count the 2 million “gotaways.” He calls this the “greatest mass movement across national borders in US history, and maybe the greatest in human history.” And it is worth mentioning these people are coming from 150 different countries.
Why are they coming? He says it gets down to risk versus reward. If the reward is greater than the risk of deportation, migrants will come. Under the Trump administration, the risks were higher. The president extended the border wall, instituted a “remain in Mexico” policy, and empowered border and immigration agents to detain, deport, and expel illegal immigrants.
The current administration reversed all those policies. He laments that now “border agents became like Walmart greeters; deportation officers were chained to their desks; most anyone who showed up was guaranteed entry.”
The odds changed significantly, and word got out to other countries. We now have a “mass movement of people toward a single goal: to get across the border.” Once they get here, then we have the responsibility to feed, house, and care for millions of people from other countries we didn’t invite to this country.
How can we reverse this trend? The answer is simple: reverse the risk/reward calculus. He reminds us that we did it in 2017 to 2021. We can do it again.

Kerby Anderson
Scott Galloway is a professor of marketing at the New York University Stern School of Business and author of the book The Algebra of Wealth. In a recent TED Talk, he describes many of the concerns I have raised in previous commentaries. The first step in solving a problem is properly identifying it.
He begins by reminding us that as we go down the generations, “the last two generations are making less money on an inflation adjusted basis.” He argues that the social contract in America has broken because “for the first time in the US’s history a 30-year-old is no longer doing as well as his or her parents were at 30.” Most young Americans do not feel good about America. That attitude creates rage and can explain the incendiary movements like the BLM riots and pro-Hamas protests.
He also shows graphs that parallel the research by his colleague, Jonathan Haidt. Rates of self-harm increase. Rates of depression also increase. He recalls that when he was in high school, teenagers died because of drunk driving. Today teenagers are killing themselves.
Many of these disturbing trends were surfacing 30 years ago when I wrote Signs of Warning, Signs of Hope. The builder generation (born before the end of WWII) sent Dad off to work and Mom stayed home with the kids and most went to church. The boomer generation (1946-1964) had two parents working, had a more difficult time buying a home, and may or may not have gone to church. The latest generations have both husband and wife working, aren’t sure they want to have kids, may never afford a home, and don’t go to church.
The economic and spiritual trends that started decades ago account for so many of the societal concerns surfacing today. It’s time to admit we have a broken economy and broken society that needs revival.