I agree it will likely be all show.
From this recent article there's been ~21,000 illegal crossings from Canada to US this year. Unsurprisingly, 18,000 of these are from eastern Ontario and southern Quebec - it's not some conspiracy or different rules/enforcement going on - it's just easy to cross there with many roads, towns and access points in the east. As often reported, all of this is a minor fraction of total immigration to the US:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/border-trump-crossings-1.7395268#:~:text=Overall illegal border crossings from,U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
But as you said, all this is for show - illegal immigration from Canada isn't a "real" issue for the US in a practical sense. It's an issue only in the sense that everything is an issue when it's an extension of culture war principles to always be angry and feel threatened. The real objectives of changing US policy aren't really about this though - the real objectives are the total policy change in the US that is looking to end the free trade era and adopt this new onshoring, tariff-based philosophy.
I think Alberta - as the poster-child of the all too common myopic provincial attitudes in Canada - is poorly positioned to address what's actually going on here. Decades of over-reliance and political capture by a single trade-dependent industry combined with a political ideology to blame others and make "everything Ottawa's fault", has created a stale and ineffective political class unwilling to materially adapt to changing situations. None of this is new of course - over-reliance on a single industry is a common Alberta talking point since the province was created. We just haven't dealt with our fickle trading partner actually acting so dramatically and so quickly against our interests for many decades.
Responding to the border stuff is just responding to the rhetoric, the real issue is Trump's on-shoring of everything is his goal, he also doesn't seem to concerned about the costs to US consumers by raising taxes on them through the tariff approach. Frack, baby, frack is the issue, not a few dozen people who trudge through southern Alberta annually. So far what we have seen is the province waste time and money throwing a few bucks at the imaginary "problem" of border issues outside it's jurisdiction.
What the province should be focusing on when there's an external threat is strengthening ties to Canada - draft a bunch of uni-lateral internal trade agreements with all other provinces to to harmonize working permits and licenses so anyone can work anywhere easier. Remove barriers to all industries that help with diversification (e.g. cancel the anti-wind and solar legislation etc.) Stabilize provincial systems through more predictable funding and taxation schemes that don't rely on royalties.
Essentially do the stuff everyone has been saying to do for a half-century that is within provincial jurisdiction and stop wasting so much time pretending to be a different level of government and responding to the culture way stuff of the day.
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