I'm somewhat less sanguine than Matt about polls showing voters don't care that much about immigration. When a pollster calls up and asks you to identify the gravest issues facing the country, you know full well to put on your somber voice and mention the Big Things: Iraq, national security, the economy. But what you "know" intellectually may have very little to do with what actually arouses your passion, your anger, your outrage. My sense is that voters "feel" the immigration issue acutely, much as they "feel" the abortion issue acutely. And though I want to be comforted by surveys showing that that's not the case, this doesn't strike me as the sort of issue where cold data will be of much use. I'd be more interested to see what happens when you drop illegal immigration into a focus group of well-chosen voters. If they prove unimpressed, that would be an interesting result. But for now, immigration seems like the sort of issue that moves votes without topping anyone's considered list.
