A vigorous discussion is taking place online about the word “illegal” as an adjective for certain immigrants. An immigrant activist named Jose Antonio Vargas, a former reporter, is urging news organizations like The New York Times to stop using it. He says the word is inaccurate, improper and demeaning. (link)
The way “illegal” in “illegal immigrant” defines an entire person, not merely an unlawful act. It taints everything that person does, and suggests an irreparable offense. How do you legalize an illegal person?
Thoughts?
This is a very interesting article, and my question is what would they replace the word "illegal" with? I know the article mentioned, "undocumented" but I feel that is not a better way to phrase it. I also do not think that changing this word will change the way those people who oppose immigration feel about it. I do think that this is a start, words can be a powerful thing!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Maureen that words can be a very powerful thing and the term illegal may have some untruthful meanings. However, it seems that regardless of what word we use there will be some negative connotations that will arise. I don't think that there is any right answer on what to call these immigrants, but a general consensus can be drawn on the actual status of these particular people.
ReplyDeleteI look at the debate from the other direction as the author of the article, and so come to an opposite conclusion. A criminal is someone who broke the law. Although they may be a good and decent person with people that love them back home, they still made poor decisions and will forever be marred with the connotation of being a criminal. The same should go for people who enter this country illegally. They broke the law of immigration, and no matter how good of a person they might be, every action going forward will be marred with the fact that they began their life in this nation with a crime. The only reason we don't call them criminals I guess then is because they are not citizens and we do not send them to our publicly funded prisons, so they do not merit the label of full blown criminal. I would be fine with the term unauthorized, but honestly at this point we are splitting hairs to come up with a nice way of telling people they broke the law. I think we should all focus on the bigger issues at hand rather than the semantics of it all.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Travis in the fact that no matter which way you spin it, there are laws being broken, and thus the title in which we refer to these individuals is a much smaller issue than the actually act of illegal immigration itself. Now, if someone were to use the term "illegal alien" to refer an entire race of people, that would be very wrong and racist. It also seems like a situation in which no matter what term we use to classify these immigrants, there will most likely still be a group of people unhappy with the title.
ReplyDeleteSemantics. I think it describes this debate fairly. I also find it interesting that the author finds relating and equating our current immigration situation to that of the pilgrims to be a valid point of reference. I can't agree more with Travis, no what the law is, if we agree or not, it's the law, and in an effort to keeping the law understood, the term 'illegal' describes unlawful people in this case.
ReplyDeleteI too agree with Travis. A person doing a crime is a criminal and if someone breaks a law its illegal. People who wants to have an open order or less strict law for the immigration purpose don't like how they are labelled.
ReplyDeleteThe article mentions using words like “undocumented” or “unauthorized” instead of illegal. These word choices seem much less harsh and still convey the person’s lack of citizenship without such a negative connotation. Also, many people can be labeled as an “illegal immigrant” who do not fully fit the statues. What about those people who have families in the United States and come to visit for months or even years on end? Are these people considered illegal? What about refugees who are running away from war and violence in their home county? Someone who immigrated without the proper paper work could be saving up for an immigration lawyer or waiting for assistance from friends or family. Are these people really violating immigration laws? When it comes to people immigrating the issue is not black or white, there are many gray areas and it is not fair to label someone without knowing their full story.
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