For some reason, your comment reminded me of this minor event in history. I have no idea where this immigration thing is going, but I do know there is a lot of anti-immigration (anti-immigrant, really) sentiment out there in some circles. I sometimes think we, the "sensible" ones, take the current stability and sensibility of people for granted, that we really aren't all that far away -- a couple of terror attacks, maybe some kind of lurid crime committed by an illegal immigrant -- from our society embracing something ugly and alien to our stated values. For me, one of the bellwethers of that is the immigration discussion. I'm not that alarmed about it yet, but it is growing in importance.