This paper comments on a talk given by Verena Risse at the 2018 ZiF Workshop “Studying Migration Policies at the Interface Between Empirical Research and Normative Analysis”, September 2018, in Bielefeld. Risse describes three general concepts of how border control tends to deviate from the standard case of a state official performing control at the geographical border. Then, she attempts to establish that these developments create a situation that is not covered by classical approaches of the normative justification of border controls. Though I agree with many of Risse’s observations, I doubt that there is a straightforward link from those three general concepts to normative problems. Therefore, if we want to evaluate border policies, we need a much more fine-grained apparatus of, on the one hand, normative principles, and, on the other hand, information about the nature and consequences of these border policies. Risse’s paper is available under doi: 10.17879/95189433777.