If we compare American and European legal system, differences are essentially due to the different way of dealing with the culture of security of the relationship between politics and law. Today, that gap is narrowing because Europe is changing its approach to security and, in the field of migration, its political quest for more security also involves the limitation of the judicial check and a more formalistic approach to interpreting and applying the law, i.e. two legal solutions that are typical of the us approach to security. Following decades of strong and wide protection of human rights in any situation, States and the European Commission are seeking for a new and different balance between human rights and security and are ready to trade some political idealism and legal functionalism in the field of migration and human rights for more political pragmatism and legal formalism in the field of security.