Why Illegal Immigration is suddenly so big a deal in the US?

I think our previous post is a good illustration of why immigration is such a hot issue. People react more stongly against "illegal immigration" in areas where there was some rather homogeneous neighborhood. In Philly, those Italian neighborhoods becoming more diverse - with new waves of immigrants coming in - get the Italian-Americans (as they like to call themselves) worry.

Kevin Drum is right, I think, when he says:

that concern about immigration has spiked recently because it's increasingly affecting areas that have never experienced significant immigration before, rather than being confined primarily to border states like California and Texas.

The economic opportunities offered by low-qualified jobs (meatfactories in Iowa or agriculture in the Midwest) have attracted a great number of illegal immigrants. (read this very enlightening article). While border states and major urband centers have (more or less) gotten used to Hispanics (legal or not), the people in Middle-America are not.