That said though - the core issue he is exploiting is an undeniable failure of the federal government to address the illegal immigration problem. It's a huge issue that has been swept under the rug and is there to be exploited by a politician like Trump who positions himself as a "non mainstream politician".
Violent[ish] protests staged by the left waving mexican flags and burning american flags only helps his agenda.
There just isn't any evidence that this is a major problem in general, and constantly trying to whip up fear about it is xenophobic (and also causes serious problems for many people who are here legally).
And no, pointing these out as important issues that need attention is not "xenophobic" even if some politicians (or ppl in general) are afraid of addressing these for fear of being labeled a "xenophobic hate monger" :)
That number is down 1 million from the DHS estimate of 12 million in 2007. That population has shrunk, yet the total U.S. population has grown by 20+ million during the same time period. It's hard to see how rational people would see this as a major problem (or in the case of many Trump supports, their number one issue).
sure, the numbers fluctuate up and down driven by many factors - economy, laws etc that doesn't change the fact that we have a porous border and a huge number of illegals.
Unless of course you're equating "enforcing existing immigration policies" with "xenophobia" which would render most of the world's countries "xenophobic".