Between the gift giving and celebrating with family over the holidays, you may have missed an attack on the First Amendment – or at least the latest effort to take political correctness to the next level.
Carmela Martinez of CampusReform.com exposed a disturbing campaign by the University of Maryland to stamp out “non-inclusive language.” One of the terms being targeted is illegal alien.
There are two issues at play here. First, a public university is attempting to stamp out language it unilaterally deems “offensive.” Never mind the First Amendment right to freedom of speech. College campuses are apparently not meant to be a forum for legitimate political discussions and sharing of ideas.
The second is the use of the term illegal alien. It is not the first time we’ve seen a campaign against the use of this legal term which appears in U.S. laws and court briefs. Earlier this year illegal alien journalist Jose Antonio Vargas tried to pressure major new outlets like The New York Times and the Associated Press into discontinuing the use of “illegal immigrant.” He was ultimately unsuccessful.
The University’s suggested alternative to illegal alien has no legal basis or history or is even remotely descriptive of one’s immigration status – “undocumented citizen.” Calling someone in the country illegally a citizen is an oxymoron. And undocumented? Illegal aliens typically have a number of documents – they just may be foreign, fake or belong to someone else.