Anti-Illegal-Immigration vs. Anti-Immigrant

   I suppose I'm becoming a kook about all this stuff, but one of the things that's been baffling/infuriating me for a year or so is the media's resolute effort to paint people who are concerned about illegal immigration as "anti-immigrant." This is--obviously--outrageous. It seems to be too obvious and egregious an error to simply be an oversight, doesn't it? I mean...it's an absolutely crucial distinction, it's an extremely obvious and simple distinction... There's no whiff of casuistry in it...  I don't know which thing I find more incredible, that the media could simply be oblivious or indifferent to the distinction between legal and illegal immigrants (and between anti-immigration and anti-illegal-immigration) or that this could actually be an intentional strategy by the media to discredit concerns about illegal immigration. We all tend to recoil from conspiracy theories...but the alternative is that a very large group of at least moderately intelligent people do not recognize an extremely simple and important distinction. CNN and MSNBC seem particularly bad about this; the conflation seems basically routine there.
   Here are just a very few examples grabbed after a few seconds of Googling:
"When Did the GOP Get So Extreme On Immigration?"
"The Danger of the GOP's Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric"
"From California, A Warning To Republicans On Anti-Immigration Rhetoric"
"More GOP Senate Campaigns Adopting Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric"
   In each case, it's actually illegal immigration that's at issue, as you can confirm. Not only do these ignore the distinction between legal and illegal immigration, a lot of them (intentionally?) gloss over the distinction between anti-illegal-immigration and anti-illegal-immigrant. Also, obviously, important.
   I'm getting more and more concerned about American liberalism, more and more concerned with such confusions and tricks by liberals, and more and more concerned about liberalism's cozy relationship (to say the least) with the media (and, on a different note, universities). Unfortunately, conservatism has spent 30-ish years using the "liberal media" mantra to weasel its way out of legitimate criticism...so making this case isn't going to be easy.
   Perhaps this sort of thing really is par for the course, and I've just been oblivious to it in the past. Perhaps I had an excessively rosy view of liberals and Democrats, and I'm just now having many of my illusions shattered. Of course it's difficult for me to tell.
   At any rate, and other things to the side: if your opponent is wrong, then you shouldn't have to straw-man him. Just explain why he's wrong. If the GOP is wrong about illegal immigration, just state the case. But pretending that they're anti-immigrant is despicable. This is reminiscent of the left's tendency to call anyone who disagrees with them about race 'racist,' and it absolutely needs to stop. Such tactics are sleazy and entirely impermissible.