Nancy LeTourneau, writing at Washington Monthly:

Donald Trump, Stephen Miller and Pat Buchanan all want white people to conflate America with whiteness and believe that the “invasion” or “infestation” of black and brown people is a threat, not just to each of us individually, but to our country and our way of life. Keep that in mind the next time you hear Trump or his enablers tell you that there is a crisis on our border. It’s a lie. The real crisis this country is facing is one of white identity.

I think that is exactly right.

The only crisis at the border is the one of Trump’s own making, abetted by conservatives who have refused for decades to engage in any meaningful or constructive conversation about immigration.

They are stirring all of this up because they are scared of a changing world. They are part of a minority ruling class that senses the ground shifting under its feet, and they want everyone else to be just as scared as they are.