Maybe the Tri-Cities is where you'd expect to see this kind of thing first. After all, Pasco is the Northwest's first fairly large majority-minority city, the Hispanic population in the Tri-Cities generally is growing fast, and there's even a large (more than 50 members) Tri-Cities Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
So maybe we shouldn't be surprised at what's emerging in the city council race at Kennewick, where one of the challenger candidates is Loren Nichols.
In October 2009, Nichols went to a city council meeting asking that the city establish policies to ban illegal immigrants and actively work to expel them. After city officials responded that was a federal and state, not local, job, Nichols departed, unsatisfied, and has launched a campaign for the council.
With that platform, he's expanding a bit on his ideas. Not only should the city go after any illegal immigrants, but it should make Kennewick an "English-only" city - not that English is the official language, but that it's the only one that can be used in any public signs or communications. And not only that. Illegal immigrants, he said, ought to be "shot at the border." If he became mayor, he would seek to order all illegal immigrants out within 30 days, and "If they value their lives, they would leave."
And further, to the Yakima Herald-Republic: "I know that is a very drastic stand, but let me put it this way: I expect illegal invasion of our country by foreign entities to be met with deadly force. That's how I expect to see my country protected, and I feel the same way about our city."
How many votes do you think he gets?