My sense of Illinois (city, burbs, downstate) is that if you asked Republicans open ended questions:
In choosing a presidential candiate, what are your top 3 conerns?
10% of Republicans side with you on "border control".
25% of Republicans are strongly pro-immigration like me.
65% of Republicans are focused on other issues and immigration is way down their list.
Corruption is by far the #1 issue... but that may be unique to Illinois.
Education is perpetually a top issue .... although nobody agrees on the solution.
Life, Gays, Guns, War on terrorism, taxes, over-regulation would place high.
There are several types of pro-immigrant Republicans.
Libertarians like Eric Dondero and me.
Compassionate conservatives like the GOP leader in my Schaumburg Twp suburb St Rep Paul Froehlich.
Abolitionist Republicans who overlap compassionate conservatives but also include some non-conservatives and some who are dogmatic and not compassionate.
Mercantilists (in the Adam Smith sense) who are motivated by cheap labor for business.
Karl Rove wannabes who think it is part of a play for the Hispanic vote.
The point about pulled threads is interesting--I didn't know they were doing that. The national polls do not support your view--the easiest hot button to hit is border control.
Among other things, I think most real conservatives who have thought about the issues ought to come down to a form of modified isolationism--if we can get back to the free enterprise system; limit government interference in daily life and restore constitutional limitations on the federal government; and get the education system working; all without interference from either enemies making war on us or from international organizations that want to dictate how we should live, the country will be fine--we will be able to buy all the energy we need in the open marketplace. If we don't, the country will not survive in its present form.
Among other things, we have trouble doing that with the burden of the illegals.
I doubt that the usual poll respondent thinks it through that far but there is widespread recognition that there is an enormous burden to the illegals; and significant national security risk. So it is a hot button issue.
If Tancredo were better qualified, he would win the nomination on that platform--he might win it even with limited capabilities to act as President.
On an intellectual analysis basis, it should be noted that in the next month or so, the birth rate in Mexico drops below the replacement rate. So an end is in sight and probably fairly quickly. The politicians are not sophisticated enough to understand the ultimate end game if the rules do not change. So the politics of the issue are easy to access for both Tancredo and Mrs. Clinton.
The Robinsons are fine, committed Constitutional government Americans. I am unsure whether they believe the Republican party is the only way or even a possible way to achieve restoration of the Republic--it would be good if the Republicans could find another Ronald Reagan but I don't see one on the horizon and for the most part, most of the serious candidates I do see are wets. I am going to vote against all wet Republican candidates in the future--I am not alone.