There's not really a whole lot to debate. You can bring up statistics and data, but the heart of the issue is not ignorance, but identity. People who are anti-illegal immigration generally only use it as a more polite and socially acceptable proxy for what they really want, which is to reduce or end immigration altogether (except perhaps from places that they share a common identity with). These people don't want immigration because they see this country as their home and feel it should belong to them and them alone. Immigration obviously gives people with whom they do not share an identity a stake in the present and future of this home. The people in favor of immigration typically either want more material wealth (the economic argument) or do not have an identity that differentiates between natives and immigrants, and so see refusal to allow them as oppression (the social justice argument).
> People who are anti-illegal immigration generally only use it as a more polite and socially acceptable proxy for what they really want, which is to reduce or end immigration altogether (except perhaps from places that they share a common identity with).
Could you explain a little about how you made that inference? Nothing in my daily experience leads me to reach the same conclusion.
A lot of the immigration hawks are extremely explicit about immigrants "destroying" our culture, and tend to dogwhistle a lot. A few are explicitly white supremacists.
The wanting more immigrants from "nations like Norway" was a huge tell too.
