The campaign of Senator Ted Cruz of Texas has begun to air a new television advertisement in New Hampshire, a slightly tongue-in-cheek, 60-second spot that focuses solely on illegal immigration.

On Screen

A woman’s dress shoe cuts through dried grass as bass drums and ominous horns sound before fading to black. Black suit pants then wade waist-deep through water as the drums intensify. As in a movie trailer, the camera pans out to dozens of awkward, suit-clad adults scrambling through a desert field, as an audio track of Mr. Cruz from the November debate ascends.

With a mild echo, he critiques the news media coverage and narrative of illegal immigration: “I will say the politics of it would be very, very different if a bunch of lawyers or bankers were crossing the Rio Grande. Or if a bunch of people with journalism degrees were coming over and driving down the wages in the press, then we would see stories about the economic calamity that is befalling our nation.” As he switches to his immigration plan, the camera cuts from the fake invasion to footage of another debate, this one from December, hanging on a split screen of Mr. Cruz and Senator Marco Rubio for a few seconds before closing.

The Message

The portrayal of a business-attired invasion, awkward or not, paints an us versus them argument on immigration, which is exactly what the Cruz campaign wants, and it makes the case on two fronts. The first point is that illegal immigration is of the utmost importance, and that none of the Washington lawyers, business executives or journalists feel the effects like everyday Americans do. That lingering split screen also reinforces Mr. Cruz’s divergence with Mr. Rubio, who sponsored a bill in 2013 that would have given people in the country illegally a pathway to citizenship.