It's not the whole country. And the problem really is the NUMBER of people. If you go onto sites like Quora you see all over the place, "How do I become an international student and got to the U.S.", etc. People all over the WORLD think that "the answer" to their particular problem--whatever it happens to be--is "I'll go to the U.S."
And in ONE MONTH the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol CAUGHT 180 THOUSAND people who came to the southern border from South and Central America.
By the way--before COVID, ITALY and AUSTRALIA were running into the SAME problem.
People from all over Africa would trek to Libya and be put on small boats with the idea, "We'll show up in Italy and they have to take us in!"
It got to the point where the Italian Navy was patrolling the waters, stopping the boats while they were still in international waters, and telling the people, "You CAN'T come to Italy."
It was happening with Australia too. People from the Indian subcontinent and similar areas would get in a boat and try to travel something like SEVEN HUNDRED MILES on the open sea, figuring they would show up in Australia and demand to be allowed in.
What Australia did was to intercept them around 400 miles from Australia, tell them they could not go into Australia, and it brought them to a "refugee camp" island.
And it fact--Australia ENCOURAGES immigration. But only for people UNDER age 46 AND with SPECIFIC SKILLS, not "JUST ANYBODY".
