This article from Oregon was written before the debates. It doesn't have much more than the title tells you and it falsely states that the country is divided on immigration. No, the great majority of Americans favor an end to illegal immigration. On the other side are the elites. Numerically that's not a divide, and in terms of power it's not a divide either.

The article does, however, have some interesting statistics:

Oregon was home to about 90,000 illegal immigrants in 2000, according to the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). That's almost triple the previous government estimate in 1996 and 333 percent higher than the estimate for 1990, giving Oregon the 14th largest illegal immigrant population in the country, according to FAIR...

In March, the Department of Homeland Security launched its most intense effort to control the U.S.-Mexico border.

Millions of dollars were spent on electronic ground sensors, unmanned aerial vehicles, special air operations and more than 2,000 Border Patrol agents along the busiest and deadliest stretch of the Arizona-Sonora desert.

A total of 1,158,802 people were caught by the U.S. Border Patrol trying to get into the United States during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, said Border Patrol spokeswoman Gloria Chavez.

Of those, 75,371 were from countries other than Mexico.

Robert Bonner, commissioner of Customs and Border Protection said that between Oct. 1, 2003 and Aug. 31, the arrest of illegal immigrants by U.S. Border Patrol agents included: 138 homicide suspects; 67 kidnapping suspects; 226 sexual assault suspects; 431 robbery suspects; 2,342 suspects for assaults of other types; and 4,801 involved with dangerous narcotics.

Federal agents also tallied 325 deaths along the southwest border, said Chavez...