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In Cross Hairs of Word Police

Ruben Navarrett Jr. on

-- For those who are concerned that the word "illegal" stirs negative emotions, many of those concerns can be addressed if we agree not to use it as a noun (i.e., "the illegals") and if we completely refrain from using the much more offensive term "illegal alien."

-- The charge that the term "dehumanizes" people is ridiculous. It describes an action as much as it does a person. An illegal immigrant is someone who immigrates illegally.

-- This debate distracts from the real issues -- i.e., the need for comprehensive immigration reform, walls of separation between immigration agents and local police, an end to do-it-yourself state immigration laws, and a return to the days when deportation policies were not out of whack.

-- The issue also alienates supporters of comprehensive immigration reform and other right-minded people who think we should have a more fair, more honest, and more humane way of dealing with illegal immigrants but who also feel uneasy about scrubbing the language and calling them anything other than "illegal immigrants."

-- This is a squabble among elites. Ask an illegal immigrant if he cares what he's called or whether he is more preoccupied with his day-to-day struggle to work and provide for his family, avoid deportation and ensure that his children get legalized, and you'll see that changing the language of the debate doesn't even register.

-- Finally, the crusade highlights the hypocrisy of liberal Democrats who like to think of themselves as progressives because they eschew a term such as "illegal" but then turn around and support a Democratic president who has racked up record numbers of deportations.

 

This whole discussion is a terrible waste of time. It's also a reminder that those of us who support comprehensive immigration reform need to get our story straight.

We have long argued that illegal immigrants should have the opportunity, via earned legalization, to make amends for wrongdoing. Is the new argument that those immigrants needn't bother because, on second thought, they did nothing wrong?

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Ruben Navarrette's email address is ruben@rubennavarrette.com.


Copyright 2012 Washington Post Writers Group

 

 

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