Is there anyone seriously so idiotic as to take the first position? May be I don't follow US politics that much, but I always thought that this position is either a strawman or sarcasm.
Idealistic, maybe, but not idiotic. I think reasons for thinking that "working on border security is bad" include:
1) The desire for a "free and open" world, especially without much first-hand experience of the immediate downsides of that.
2) That technologies in this space also directly enable police-state situations, and there are reasons to believe that this is a risk in the future.
3) A privacy-driven dislike for surveillance -- sure, you know who I am when I go through passport control, but I don't want to be tracked in more detail than that.
4) Our existing border security is reasonably functional, and there are better ways to spend the time & money. (Especially as pertains the arguably excessive "border wall".)
1) The desire for a "free and open" world, especially without much first-hand experience of the immediate downsides of that.
2) That technologies in this space also directly enable police-state situations, and there are reasons to believe that this is a risk in the future.
3) A privacy-driven dislike for surveillance -- sure, you know who I am when I go through passport control, but I don't want to be tracked in more detail than that.
4) Our existing border security is reasonably functional, and there are better ways to spend the time & money. (Especially as pertains the arguably excessive "border wall".)