I'm pretty sure it's extremely import to inspect what people are bringing into the country. Besides the financial... tools that people can bring into a country there's a whole host of other items that can negatively impact the country, and not just from a social aspect:

* Invasive species. This includes plants, not just animals.

* Drugs

* In times of known or potential epidemics, screening people for obvious sickness.

* Weapons or tools that could be used for the purposes of terrorism.

Why would you say that there's no reason to inspect what people are bringing into your country?

1) All of those also apply to inter-region travel within the same country. Should those have guarded borders too? Shouldn't there be guarded borders between neighborhoods in the same city, just to make sure that nothing bad spreads? Hell, why not run around "inspecting" people's houses at random, just in case?

2) None of those are digital, so your earlier justification is moot anyway.

I'm well aware none of those are digital. That was exactly the point, to provide reasons outside the scope of the current conversation, since it's clearly being debated in this thread. I don't think you can really debate the above reasons therefore there is absolutely a need to search you as a person and your belongings when crossing a border.

As to your first statement, ignoring how disingenuous it is, if those standards did have a reasonable justification for applying them to inter-regional travel the fact that we do not apply those policies to inter-regional travel does not negate the justification for applying those policies on the international border. It's not binary.

> As to your first statement, ignoring how disingenuous it is, if those standards did have a reasonable justification for applying them to inter-regional travel the fact that we do not apply those policies to inter-regional travel does not negate the justification for applying those policies on the international border. It's not binary.

So what is that justifying difference that you seem to think exists?

National sovereignty, which historically simplifies to war-time allegiance. This is a common classification for governments of nation-states imposing travel restrictions. Are you asking if it's justified?