For all of the attention it receives, immigration as an issue that moves Republican voters could end up a big nothing-burger in Iowa in 2016.

It’s a long year until the Iowa caucuses, the first nominating contest of the Republican presidential primary. The campaign has only just begun. But in interviews with GOP chairmen in nine Iowa counties influential in Republican primaries, the verdict was that national security and foreign policy are driving the debate at this early stage and could prove decisive. Immigration is described as important to likely caucus-goers but is an issue on which they are split.