{"id":1656,"date":"2012-08-21T14:02:50","date_gmt":"2012-08-21T18:02:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/live-immigrationreform.pantheonsite.io\/?p=1656"},"modified":"2015-08-12T15:26:35","modified_gmt":"2015-08-12T19:26:35","slug":"illegal-aliens-find-the-term-illegal-%e2%80%9cuncomfortable%e2%80%9d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2012\/08\/21\/illegal-aliens-find-the-term-illegal-%e2%80%9cuncomfortable%e2%80%9d\/","title":{"rendered":"Illegal Aliens Find the Term Illegal \u201cUncomfortable\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A brief article in today\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newsday.com\/news\/nation\/immigrants-protest-illegal-label-1.3916690\" target=\"_blank\">Long Island Newsday<\/a> highlights the efforts by a group called The Applied Research Center, a far-left \u201cthink tank\u201d dedicated to racial justice, to have the word \u201cillegal\u201d made illegal when referring to immigrants.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cDrop The I-Word\u201d campaign seeks to reinforce the message that using the term is offensive and demeaning to immigrants who came here \u2018illegally.\u2019 The campaign wants the term \u201cillegal\u201d replaced with the friendlier, and might I add incorrect, term \u201cundocumented.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, as a professor of political science at Stony Brook University pointed out, using the term \u201cundocumented\u201d in such cases is flawed because it normally refers to individuals who are seeking asylum in the United States.\u00a0\u00a0 Moreover, the word\u00a0 \u201cundocumented\u201d suggests that those who have violated U.S. immigration laws are simply inconvenienced by not having the proper papers.\u00a0 But many illegal aliens do have documentation \u2013 it just doesn\u2019t happen to rightfully belong to them!<\/p>\n<p>Some illegal aliens complained that the term \u201cillegal\u201d criminalizes a whole community of people and a self-described \u201cundocumented\u201d said that being referred to as an illegal alien makes him \u201cuncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>First of all, coming into the United States illegally (whether crossing a border without inspection or hiding in the hull of a ship) is a crime \u2013 see <a href=\"http:\/\/codes.lp.findlaw.com\/uscode\/8\/12\/II\/VIII\/1325\" target=\"_blank\">Section 1325 of the U.S. Code<\/a>: Illegal entry by alien \u2013 punishable by a fine and\/or imprisonment.\u00a0 Lastly, if being labeled as an illegal alien makes one uncomfortable, here is a bit of advice, don\u2019t come to the U.S. illegally in the first place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A brief article in today\u2019s Long Island Newsday highlights the efforts by a group called The Applied Research Center, a far-left \u201cthink tank\u201d dedicated to racial justice, to have the word \u201cillegal\u201d made illegal when referring to immigrants. The \u201cDrop The I-Word\u201d campaign seeks to reinforce the message that using the term is offensive and<\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2012\/08\/21\/illegal-aliens-find-the-term-illegal-%e2%80%9cuncomfortable%e2%80%9d\/\" title=\"Read More\">Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[5,3,11,6,10,7],"tags":[1019,354,1140,1139],"yst_prominent_words":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1656"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1656"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1658,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1656\/revisions\/1658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1656"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=1656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}