I just heard him say it again, and it drives me nuts. According to Donald Trump, if we don’t have a wall, we don’t have a border, and if we don’t have a border, we don’t have a country. There has never been a wall along the Mexican border, and there has always been a lot of “unofficial” crossing of the border in both directions. Among other things, the Tohono O’Odham people’s traditional territory straddles the border between southern Arizona and Mexico. Many people have family on both sides of the border, and have traditionally crossed back and forth. A number of years ago, I met a Mexican-American professional from Texas whose grandparents had forded the Rio Grande in a covered wagon. He said they certainly didn’t have any immigration papers when they came — they just got in their wagon and did it.
So according to Donald Trump, we’ve NEVER had a border, and we’ve NEVER been a country. I’m sure that would have been a complete revelation to all of his predecessors in the White House.