Sunday, October 21, 2012



Associated Press defends use of the term "illegal immigrant"

Rather a surprise

Terms like “undocumented” and “unauthorized” can make a person’s illegal presence in the country appear to be a matter of minor paperwork. Many illegal immigrants aren’t “undocumented” at all; they may have a birth certificate and passport from their home country, plus a U.S. driver’s license, Social Security card or school ID. What they lack is the fundamental right to be in the United States.

Without that right, their presence is illegal. Some say the word is inaccurate, because depending on the situation, they may be violating only civil, not criminal law. But both are laws, and violating any law is an illegal act (we do not say “criminal immigrant”). Finally, there’s the concern that “illegal immigrant” offends a person’s dignity by suggesting his very existence is illegal. We don’t read the term this way. We refer routinely to illegal loggers, illegal miners, illegal vendors and so forth. Our language simply means that a person is logging, mining, selling, etc., in violation of the law — just as illegal immigrants have immigrated in violation of the law.

Source

5 comments:

Bird of Paradise said...

They used to call them WET BACKS becuase they swam tha Rio Grand river now their Future Demacratic Voters

Anonymous said...

The funny part is "illegal immigrant" is already politically correct. THey are illegal aliens. Calling them an "illegal immigrant" is like calling a burgler an "unauthorized houseguest"

Anonymous said...

Entering the country illegally is (not) a violation of civil law, but of criminal law, hence the arrest, jailing, arraignment, trial, and imprisonment. Well, theoretically anyway.

Someone should ask the American people, or the govt. for that matter, what they would do, think, or feel, if a country, say, Iran, N. Korea, China, Venezuela, etc. had 30-40 Million of their troops illegally enter the US. (unarmed) settle in, and demand govt. services from the tax payers.

Go Away Bird said...

The DIASSIOATED PRESS

Anonymous said...

Apart from 2:21's scenario being way beyond credible, the report only shows that in relative terms the violence and insecurity in the US is somewhat less than in Mexico and South America (not a great advert for the US).