Washington, D.C. (October 30, 2025) – This week on
Parsing Immigration Policy, Simon Hankinson, Senior Research Fellow at The Heritage Foundation, discusses his new book,
The Ten Woke Commandments You Must Not Obey. Two of the book’s chapters focus on immigration: “You Shall Have No Borders” and “You Shall Have No Nation.”
In the episode, Hankinson explains why the idea of the nation-state is fundamental to civilization and how the erosion of borders threatens both prosperity and safety. He argues that:
- The open border movement is both ideological and political – a tool to expand government dependency and reshape the electorate.
- A democracy cannot survive without defined borders; “If you don’t have a country to defend, nothing else matters.”
- Birthright citizenship and “birth tourism” weaken the meaning of national allegiance and civic responsibility.
Drawing on his years as a U.S. diplomat in India, Ghana, Fiji, Togo, and Slovakia, Hankinson shares how his first-hand experience with visa processing opened his eyes to migration patterns and visa fraud, shaping his perspective on U.S. immigration policy.
He also reflects on how free speech, civic duty, and national loyalty intersect in a society increasingly pressured to conform to ideological orthodoxies.
(Upcoming Event: Hankinson and Krikorian will join a November 19 Heritage Foundation
panel on the H-1B visa program, exploring how it has shifted from filling national needs to displacing American workers, and how it can be reformed.)
In his closing commentary, Krikorian notes two developments that mark the end of the Biden Border Crisis. First, of course, is the dramatic drop in apprehension numbers. Despite a small uptick in Southwest border arrests in September, the newly released Fiscal Year 2025 total was the lowest in generations. Equally important, though, is the fact that the (much smaller) migrant flow has reverted to traditional patterns – mainly Mexicans, with a few Central Americans – marking an end to the globalized flow from nearly every country on earth in response to Biden administration policies.
