For Hispanic elites, promoting mass immigration (and amnesty and loose enforcement) is Job 1, since it means more warm bodies to pretend to speak for, which makes all other things possible for them. See, for instance, this item from an NYT blog: “Immigration Tops Latinos’ Wish List at D.C. Meeting.” Maybe a representative cross-section of Hispanic-American opinion? Nope: “a group of Latino advocates convened at a hotel on Capitol Hill.”

On the other hand, ordinary American citizens whose roots are in Latin America aren’t quite as interested in it. The Pew Hispanic Center released a poll this month that found that immigration was seventh in importance out of eight issues for actual Hispanic Americans, beating only energy policy. And just six percent of respondents said it was the most important issue for them as they went to the polls.