During the last presidential election, the Republicans' wedge issue was gay-marriage.

This year it's undocumented workers.

A fiery exchange between Republican frontrunners Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani dominated the early part of last night's CNN You Tube debate. Romney accused Giuliani of making New York City the largest sanctuary city in the country.

Giuliani shot back that Romney ran a "sanctuary mansion" while he was governor of Massachusetts. Apparently the former governor unknowingly hired undocumented workers to help with repairs.

The exchange made for good TV, but it was also a childish, schoolboy squabble about a serious national issue.

The fervor against undocumented workers has become so hot that for many Americans, rational discussion about the subject is not allowed.

Instead, we're bombarded with frightening stories of terrorists who might cross the border, thousands of Americans losing their jobs, and taxpayers funding education and health care for Latin Americans working and living here illegally.

Americans are being whipped into hysteria. And underlying it is fear and racism.

Undocumented immigrants have nothing to do with the Iraq War, a falling dollar, and a broken health care system. But that won't stop the fear-mongering.

Just imagine if two undocumented women picking lettuce all day in Arizona wanted to get married. Welcome to the new apocalypse.