All across the country, pro-immigrant rallies continue and many are drawing unprecedented crowds. Clearly a lot of people are concerned that America is moving in the wrong direction on immigration. But is this a movement spurred solely by the desire to preserve a porous border while guaranteeing that America's low-wage jobs and public assistance programs remain available to illegal immigrants? Or is this outpouring also a reaction to some of the xenophobic rhetoric that currently masquerades as "immigration reform?"

For many principled opponents of illegal-immigration, the concern centers around the fact that illegal immigrants drive down wages for working-class Americans and overly burden our public education and assistance programs. But not every one who wants to stop illegal immigration is all that concerned with the very real economic costs. Instead, they're focused on what they see as cultural costs.

Even some critics who start their argument with economic rationales, have a tendency to end up discussing illegal immigrants as if they were an imperialist army threatening to divide America. Certainly there are assimilation problems with the illegal immigrant community. But the kind of rhetoric spouted by groups like the Minuteman Project borders on the xenophobic.