William A. Jacobson
Legal Insurrection
4/2/2013
There has been a political push to remove words like “illegal alien” or “illegal immigrant” from usage as part of political messaging by amnesty/open borders advocates.
The preferred term is “undocumented,” as if it’s just a question of paperwork. Once the language is redefined, it becomes a much easier sell to treat the breaking of our immigration laws as just a formality.
Not only that, “illegal alien” supposedly is racist, as if illegal alien were a race, as I posted in What race is an illegal alien?
This is all a charade. It’s the typical Color of Change race card shakedown.
The advocates of eliminating the term “illegal” want to alter immigration policies. They can’t win on the merits of open borders, so they smear others as racist.
It’s just a dishonest word game using false accusations of racism as a political lever.
Back to the subversive question: What race is an illegal alien?
Today a major victory was achieved for those seeking political control of the language as AP removed the term “illegal immigrant” from its style book, ‘Illegal immigrant’ no more:
The Stylebook no longer sanctions the term “illegal immigrant” or the use of “illegal” to describe a person. Instead, it tells users that “illegal” should describe only an action, such as living in or immigrating to a country illegally.
AP has no term to replace “illegal immigrant.” Instead of the accurate term, we’re going to get explanations…
The article continues, with video, at Legal Insurrection.
Related: Associated Press bans the phrase ‘illegal immigrant’ at The Washington Times.
House Speaker John Boehner is seriously considering breaking promises he made to his caucus in securing his re-election as speaker in order to ram through an immigration reform package, Politico reports.
Immigration reform and the 2016 Republican primary season
The Republican establishment — or at least the large chunk of it that favors amnesty and a path to citizenship for illegal aliens — must be delighted that the two Republicans said to be the leading candidates for the 2016 presidential nomination both favor amensty and a path to citizenship for illegal aliens. I’m referring, of course, to Marco Rubio and Rand Paul.
The establishment’s delight is understandable. But a closer look at how 2016 may play out provides an alternative perspective…
Update: On his Facebook page Senator Rand Paul posted this letter [PDF] of support and encouragement signed by Congressmen Mick Mulvaney, Thomas Massie, Trey Radel, Justin Amash, Jeff Duncan, and Mark Meadows.
Update 2: As Associated Press exiles the phrase “illegal immigrant”, bloggers ban the term “journalist”
