Yesterday, it was about the West’s changing perceptions of Islam and Muslims. Today, it’s immigration, specifically the debate over illegal immigration.

Has American public opinion finally reached the tipping point on illegal immigration? Have our clueless Beltway politicians finally gotten the point that illegal immigration is a serious issue, requiring serious action? In both cases, I’m thinking the answer may finally be yes, and both the burgeoning Spanish media in the U.S. and the huge illegal immigration lobby out there (both way ahead of the curve and the lumbering, slumbering mainstream media on this, by the way) know it.

This seems apparent given that we now know that it was Spanish radio stations across the country that sparked the huge outpouring of weekend rallies in support of illegal immigration – rallies that continued yesterday all across the Southwest.

If the tipping point hadn’t been reached prior to last week, my guess is the weekend rallies, rather than galvanizing public support for their cause, in fact had the opposite effect, and the rallies organizers have only themselves to blame. Did they really think that blocking traffic and creating chaos, waving Mexican flags and denouncing any goverment effort to tighten up our nation’s immigration policies (thanks, Free Republic!) is the way to shape and mold public support into believing illegal immigration is a good thing? If so, I think they seriously miscalculated and will live to regret their strategy, and soon.

Here in Phoenix, one of the epicenters of the immigration problem, we have had several days of rallies, but, if what I’ve heard around and about is any measure of public opinion, people are basically pi$$ed. Here, we know that the true by-products of illegal immigration are soaring public health costs, depressed wages for critical blue-collar jobs like construction, bloated jail populations, and one of the highest crime rates (including THE highest stolen car rate) in the nation, and no amount of rallies featuring spoiled, class-cutting high-school students will convince the locals here otherwise.

Of course, there are many complex issues surrounding the immigration issue, and many who have articulated thoughtful positions on them far more effectively than I ever could. So, without further adieu, might I recommend the following for your consideration:

Bill O’Reilly offers a sound, straight-forward 8-point plan free of bloviation.

At Red State, California Yankee has more info on how the weekend rallies were organized, and Paul J Cella has thoughts about the real issue at stake behind immigration reform.

Michelle Malkin has her usual comprehensive roundup of news and views from the weekend rallies, including this Kaus link that supports exactly what I was saying above.

Polipundit slaps the Ted Kennedy/John McCain amnesty plan upside the face to good effect. Hear! Hear!

And, about that idea that we need illegal immigrantion because they supposedly are the only ones willing to do work no other Americans want to do? Ankle Biting Pundits has a story on a subsection of the legal American population who could use a lift, emplyment-wise.