I spent much of last night talking to Republican voters in Nashua, and, as would be expected, a fair number of them brought up their concerns over immigration. Surprisingly, though, the word "immigrant" never came up. Nor did "Mexicans," "Spanish," "jobs," or "precious bodily fluids." Instead, I kept hearing "terrorism." Every one framed their concerns in terms of terrorism, as if there were hundreds of al Qaeda cells in Tijuana, just waiting to stream past the gates as soon as a puking frat boy sufficiently distracts the border guards. On some level, I find it hard to believe that all this concern over immigration is really misplaced anxiety about a second terrorist attack. My sample here is small, and it could be influenced by the way right wing radio hosts are framing the issue, a desire to appear cosmopolitan before an out-of-state reporter, or a sense that straight nativism is not socially acceptable. Or, at least for some folks, it could be genuine, and they've simply been convinced that border security is a pressing front in the Global War on People Who Want To Consume Our Kittens, or whatever Giuliani is calling it this week. But I'd be interested to see how much of the issue could be defused by a candidate taking a strong homeland security approach, rather than a restrictionist approach. In other words, it would be interesting to see if you could allay concerns by focusing on stopping the flow of potential terrorists, rather harassing and persecuting immigrants.
