Zócalo Public Square

Since the attacks of September 11th, the United States has tried to build new border defenses to keep out terrorists without stifling the flow of people and ideas from abroad, which have always contributed to our country’s dynamism. But have these new measures cut America off from the world and discouraged the globe’s best and the brightest from coming here? Council on Foreign Relations senior fellow Edward Alden visited Zócalo to assess the real effects heightened national security measures have had on both Americans and the world at large. Author of The Closing of the American Border, a book James Fallows has called “outstanding and important,” Alden chronicled the tragic stories of many innocent immigrants who have been upended by post-9/11 restrictions, and the offered a more sensible middle road for preserving American security and American ideals.