Trump's rhetoric on immigration: "letting this racist genie out of the bottle". “If it ain’t white,

it ain’t right.”

Iowa proves hard place for immigration reform message

With chants and handmade placards, Students Against Bigotry was protesting Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump’s arrival on the ISU campus. A short video posted to YouTube shows a young woman approach the group outside Jack Trice Stadium. Apparently provoked by a sign that read, “A vote for Trump is a vote for white supremacy,” the woman grabs a placard held by another protester and rips it in half.

Another Trump backer, immortalized in a Facebook video, repeatedly shouts at the group, “If it ain’t white, it ain’t right.”

“This is unfortunately letting this racist genie out of the bottle,” said Brian Behnken, an associate professor in Iowa State University’s department of history and U.S. Latino/Latina studies program. “What you’re seeing is some really ugly and frankly racist and white supremacist things. If you’ve got a guy at a football game … saying, ‘If it ain’t white, it ain’t right,’ what century are we in, again?”

The three Democrats seeking their party's nomination support comprehensive immigration reform that would allow a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. The Republican hopefuls who have spent time at the top of the Iowa polls this cycle — Trump, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson — have made their opposition to so-called amnesty for undocumented immigrants a key part of their platform. Republican candidates who support allowing some sort of path to legal status have struggled to get traction.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/elections/presidential/caucus/2016/01/19/iowa-proves-hard-place-immigration-reform-message/78891324/

"The extreme attitudes on display at the football game don’t reflect mainstream Iowa, political observers say, but they show how a noisy minority can set the tone and color a political debate." That is probably accurate but the 'noisy minority' seems to be winning the day in Iowa.