FUCK the Borders

Would a world with Open Borders be even possible?

@meccabos and I. Photo Credit: Solus1 Photography Group

Fuck the Borders

It’s so insane to watch republicans rally around a non-existent crisis around our borders. They are just regurgitating dog whistles that amplify racist notions and justify playing the better-than- thou patriot. They have zero evidence or credibility.

#securetheborders #deporttheIllegals #stoptheinvasion #buildthewall

This is the noise we hear. It’s so fucking stupid.

But what would a world without borders look like?

History of US Borders

Let’s talk about borders. Borders aren't just arbitrary lines on maps, they're toxic creations born from histories of colonial greed and exploitation. They have been carefully designed to control, to dominate, and to exclude.

“…the several Nations or Tribes of Indians with whom We are connected, and who live under our Protection, should not be molested or disturbed in the Possession of such Parts of Our Dominions and Territories as, not having been ceded to or purchased by Us, are reserved to them…” - Royal Proclamation of 1763 by King George III

The United States was born justifying violent land theft. King George III’s Proclamation of 1763 explicitly recognized Indigenous land rights and attempted to limit colonial expansion into Indigenous territories. But the "Founding Fathers," like George Washington were more motivated by their own self-interests in land speculation, ignoring and openly violating this proclamation. They illegally surveyed, claimed, and profited from Indigenous lands, sparking outrage when the British attempted to enforce the proclamation. This blatant defiance, driven by greed and racism, directly led to the Declaration of Independence (or America’s breakup letter with King George) so they could be left to their own devices to steal more land, and rape and pillage their way across America. It was always about land grabs, profit, and white supremacy.

These fucks…

Following the independence of the United States, the aggressive enforcement of borders intensified. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 was a particularly evil document that became the cornerstone to legitimize colonial conquest, slicing up Indigenous occupied territories into neatly defined parcels ripe for white settlement and exploitation. Look out your plane window when flying over America and see for yourself the perfect grid lines of property below– that is a direct result of that ordinance. The only value we had as Indigenous peoples in their eyes were the lands we lived on and had stewarded for countless generations.

I’ll take the forests…

The racist policies didn’t stop there, The Indian Removal Act of 1830 (or Trail of Tears) under the racist Andrew Jackson marked a brutal turning point. Signed into law, it led to the forced displacement of tens of thousands of Indigenous people whose properties, buildings, tools and all their belongings were openly stolen and distributed after being rounded up in stockades before the forced deadly march. Entire nations were ejected from their homelands at gunpoint, and borders were drawn to erase their presence. This was eliminationism which will continue to happen into the next century.

Other legislation like The Half-Breed Script system, implemented primarily in regions like the Midwest, and the Dawes Act of 1887, continued to justify racial violence and legalized land theft. These legal mechanisms forcibly broke communal Indigenous land into allotments for individual ownership, making it easier to sell off the “surplus” to white settlers. Nearly 90 million acres were taken through Dawes Act alone. These were calculated acts of cultural genocide.

In 1924, the creation of the U.S. Border Patrol was born out of the same colonial anxiety. That same year, the Immigration Act enshrined racist quotas favoring Northern Europeans. Border enforcement didn’t start to keep people safe; it was built to enforce white purity.

Now under Trump, we are back where we started. This is the America they wanted to make great again.

The War Against People of Color

(or more accurately known as the History of the United States)

Borders didn’t just target Indigenous communities—they were turned inward, weaponized against Black, brown, and immigrant lives. After emancipation, many formerly enslaved people began building lives and communities. But this hope was short-lived. Black Codes, vagrancy laws, and the convict leasing system recycled slavery under new names. These were economic borders, tools to contain Black freedom.

The Tulsa Massacre of 1921 remains a devastating example of what happens when Black communities succeed. Greenwood, a thriving Black district known as Black Wall Street, was firebombed by white mobs with support from city leadership. Hundreds were killed. Thousands were displaced. Generations of wealth were destroyed. It was a message to every Black community: your success will be met with state-sanctioned violence.

Redlining deepened the attack. Federal housing maps literally drew red borders around Black neighborhoods, denying them access to mortgages, business loans, and infrastructure. White people got suburbs. Black people got poverty—and police.

Mexican and Asian communities were also relentlessly targeted. In the 1930s, the U.S. deported over a million people of Mexican descent (many of them U.S. citizens) during the Mexican Repatriation. And again in 1954 with Operation Wetback. These were not isolated sweeps. These were justified racially motivated purges.

This is happening again today under the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and the weaponization of ICE.

The False Threat

truth...

Borders are colonial fences dressed up as law. They manufacture fear and justify violence. Today, ICE raids are tearing families apart under the banner of “law and order.”

The digital border is growing too. Facial recognition, data sharing between agencies, and algorithmic “risk scores” now determine who gets detained, who gets flagged, and who gets disappeared into detention centers run by private prison contractors. These tools are designed not for safety, but for speed, secrecy, and profit.

Implementing companies like Palantir to track all Americans using AI is directly out of a George Orwell novel– too bad nobody reads anymore.

Look at the cages at the border. Look at how police departments share data with ICE. These are continuations of a colonial playbook: define people of color as threats, draw borders around them, then eliminate them economically, culturally, and physically.

Call to Action

It’s time. We have to organize. We must reject these colonial constructs and begin to dismantle them piece by piece.

Call on all Black, Indigenous, LGBTQ, Immigrant, and allied communities to rise together—not just in protest, but in strategy.

We need bold, grassroots political advocacy. Don’t just vote, organize. Run for school boards. Get into city councils. Support policies that tear down ideological borders, defund detention centers, and invest in housing, food, and education instead of surveillance.

We need to create and uphold sanctuary policies. Sanctuary policies are actual local and state-level laws, resolutions, or practices that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities like ICE and CBP (Customs and Border Protection). They don’t prevent federal enforcement, but they reduce local participation in it, creating a buffer of protection.

Tribes should exercise their power and create policies in defiance of these aggressive, racist federal policies and refuse to support policies that hurt other Indigenous communities and peoples.

We need to think about our next generations.

We not only need food sovereignty (where communities have the power to control their own food), but also Education Sovereignty.Education does not have to be federally dictated. We can create community based education programs to teach our youth about true histories, true social justice, breaking down racial norms and stereotypes and looking into a better future. How do we teach the next generations to be better humans and give them the tools to see that by acknowledging the atrocities of the past, we can avoid them moving forward?

Is a Borderless Continent even possible?

Imagine a truly United North and South America. Governed not by colonial powers, billionaires, or corporate interests, but by elected representatives from every diverse region. A land where national borders are dissolved and movement is free, labor is honored, culture is protected. Where migration is no longer criminalized, but recognized as a human right.

In this future, we replace ICE with care networks. We replace fences with gardens. The original languages of the land (Lakota, Anishinaabe Aymara, Quechua, Taino, Nahuatl, and hundreds of others) are spoken alongside Creole, Spanish, Portuguese, and English. Schools teach real history. Food systems are rooted in ancestral knowledge. Elders and youth sit together to decide what matters most. We replace national governments with a diverse continental council that prioritize multilingual and multi ethnic representation.

This is not fantasy. It’s a direction. We can achieve a continent without militarized borders, without cages, without exploitation.

Why not move toward it together with urgency and imagination? Because a borderless future is not just possible, it’s necessary and attainable.

The UNITED PEOPLES of the AMERICAS.

We CAN build a future centered around communities and unity rather than land and borders, so what are we waiting for?

Oh, and last but not least, FUCK TRUMP, Dismantle the Oligarchs, and Make the Americas Borderless Again.