Sleeper Issue: Illegal Immigration

In the last item in this post over at BizzyBlog, Tom Blumer says, "Someone needs to prove that immigration can swing congressional and Senate elections before using the presdential race as a guinea pig."

My good friends at Rasmussen Reports have done some pretty interesting work on the issue of immigration. They have a poll (some of these links are going to be behind the subscription wall) that shows 69% of Americans say that gaining control of the border is more important than legalizing the status of illegal aliens undocumented workers. 74% say that the government is not doing enough to secure the borders. 80% of Americans say that the issue of immigration is important in this congressional election; 48% say it is very important.

Having said all of that, is immigration a make or break issue? For Sheriff Jones it just might be...but the rest of Ohio and the nation? I don't think it is an issue that galvanizes support one way or the other. Unless you are like me and include the border security aspects of immigration policy into national security, immigration doesn't even make the top five of the issues that concern Americans today.

UPDATE: Somewhat related... I have to agree with my email tipster that there is something a bit wrong about the US Government recruiting Border Patrol agents in a hunting magazine. I am quite sure that hunters possess some skills that would be useful to a Border Patrol agent, but there has got to be a better way to recruit them than this...