Do you realize your first sentence is at odds with the rest of your paragraph? What makes you think LI Republicans are against ILLEGAL immigration?
i emphasized ILLEGAL immigration because the candidate that i was supporting was focusing on the legal aspects (mostly the illegal housing issue.) the dems and the dem media turned it into a racial issue, branded the guy a racist, and he lost.
i don't know where most repubs on LI stand on the issue--i am really only aware of repub attitudes in huntington.
i only SUSPECT that most LI repubs oppose illegal immigration; i don't know it for a fact. however, if i were running for office here, i doubt if i would focus on the issue in my campaign. it is something like advocating social security reform. it may be necessary, but that doesn't mean that you can win a political campaign by focusing on it.
i haven't seen any polling data on this issue for LI, so i am going by election results, which are not exact indicators on a specific issue.