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In Wash. Times headline, undocumented immigrants are "illegals"

September 28, 2009 8:12 am ET by Media Matters staff

From a September 28 Washington Times article:

washtimes

Tags: The Washington Times

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    • Author by wesley (September 28, 2009 10:14 am ET)
        1
      This is drop dead funny.

      The people in question...arrived here illegally...live hear illegally...and work here illegally.

      Yet, mmfa ignores these illegalities and promotes anarchy...under the guise that these people are just characters from a Horatio Alger novel.
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      • Author by peace4all (September 28, 2009 10:28 am ET)
        1  
        while i will agrre that technically the people in question are here illegaly, the issue comes in when the right refers to these same people as criminals. really? their criminals because they are trying to escape poverty and worse and are deperately looking for a better life? we as a country do need regulation when it come to immigration (after all, how different would this country have been had native americans had sensible immigration laws?) but to refer to these people as criminals make it seem as though citizens are in some kind of danger from these people who are mostly poor but very hard working. so, maybe we should just call all of us criminals becuase even citizens break the laws of this country on a pretty regular basis. when you speed do you turn yourself in to pay for your crime? when you jaywalk, do you go down to the courthouse to pay for your lawbreaking?
        if you want to discuss immigration, thats a legitimate arguement to have. however, calling these people criminals and worse does not help to move the dicussion forward. let me ask you a question? if you were poor and had no hope to provide for your family, but you knew that if you just crossed a border you could get a job that would provide for your family, would you do it or would you let your family suffer because you did not want to break the law?
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        • Author by wesley (September 28, 2009 10:53 am ET)
            1
          -- technically the people in question are here illegaly -- peace4all

          Technically? Yep, you've swallowed the Horatio Alger meme promoted by mmfa. Regardless of their motives...they're here illegally.

          Buying into your analogy that they just "crossed a border" to escape poverty and injustice in their own country...that they are all just decent human beings seeking to improve their lot in life...would suggest their cowardice at not staying home and working to fix the ills in their own country.

          The issue is not the motives of the illegal aliens...it's the abysmal failure of our government to secure our borders...causing the situation we face today.

          We should make every effort to secure our borders and prevent illegal aliens from entering.

          We should aggressively prosecute business who hire illegal aliens.

          We should enact a guest worker program that allows temporary work visas for those seeking work and for business' that need them. Register...report regularly...and go back home when the work is finished.

          We should deport immediately any illegal alien. Don't even start with the theme that we can't deport them all. They didn't get here overnite and we can't deport them all overnite...but we can sure as hell get started.
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          • Author by peace4all (September 28, 2009 11:26 am ET)
            1  
            well, you will get alot more traction when the right decides to fully go after businesses that hire the undocumented. and using your line don't even start about the business not knowing that they hire undocumented workers. i lived in california my whole life and these companies know exactly who they are hiring. so, stop corrupt businesses and you will stop illegal immigration.
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            • Author by wesley (September 28, 2009 11:41 am ET)
                 
              -- stop corrupt businesses and you will stop illegal immigration. -- peace4all

              That would be a huge step in the right direction.

              However, don't blame this all on the right wing...the problem is rife throughout congress...and there are many on the right that believe the same as you and I...unfortunately we're not in congress.
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        • Author by pecst1 (September 28, 2009 11:38 am ET)
          1  
          I get it. A person or a people can't be "illegal". It's a form of setting them apart from the rest as to be dismissed(sometimes termed "othering"). It does nothing to address the problem. Moreover, it's an easy outlet for blame from the ignorant. OK, I'll give you that.

          Still, I'll never understand the argument from the left, a political position that I hold. Please stop with the relative arguments that we all break the laws at some point, not one is perfect, and we need to feel more than enforce. "Illegals" may have become a pejorative, but "undocumented immigrants" is an absurd whitewash. To paraphrase Teddy Roosevelt,(and I hate doing because to quote great Americans has become some kind of trump card lately)America is not a polyglot boarding house. In that same speech he says that immigrants can't be used as an industrial asset but regarded as social outcasts.

          I'll give all the slack in the world to anyone trying to better their lot in life and I'll help if I can. In the same breath, I'm not going to reduce myself and my country so someone can get there.
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      • Author by DellDolly (September 28, 2009 11:53 am ET)
        2  
        People aren't illegal. That's the issue. It's a term that shouldn't be used to describe people.

        MMFA doesn't promote a continuation of illegal immigration with this post. They promote discontinuing to call people illegals. This has nothing to do with any arguments over what to do about illegal immigration issues. It has to do with the hate-filled words some people use to describe the people who are in our country illegally.

        This is the second series of posts I've seen Wesley make today where he's desperately trying to change the subject of the MMFA post.
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        • Author by wesley (September 28, 2009 12:20 pm ET)
            1
          -- It has to do with the hate-filled words some people use to describe the people who are in our country illegally. -- delldolly

          Please show where mmfa cited "hate-filled words" in this article.

          Then, explain why it's wrong...the motive you conjure up for mmfa...to describe the people who are here illegally as illegal immigrants.

          You stated plainly that the situation is about people "who are in our country illegally"...and referred to "illegal immigration issues"...making it abundantly proper to call those people "illegals".
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          • Author by DellDolly (September 28, 2009 12:44 pm ET)
               
            Nope. The people aren't illegal. Their immigration status is "illegal". People being here illegally doesn't make them illegal.

            And the Washington Times didn't describe them as "illegal immigrants". They described them as "illegals".
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          • Author by DellDolly (September 28, 2009 2:27 pm ET)
               
            The hate-filled words? In this case, "illegals" used to describe a person when we don't use "illegals" to describe anyone else who has violated a civil law.

            Other examples? I don't know if MMFA's filters will let me use them, but let me try - http://www.wecanstopthehate.org/uploads/FS-CodeWordsDebate-FNL.pdf

            Wetbacks
            Saying that it's a "war", and we're being "invaded"
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          • Author by fawltylogic (September 28, 2009 9:40 pm ET)
               
            Calling them "illegals" is part of a concerted effort to dehumanize them in order to strip them of rights as persons even if they are not citizens.
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            • Author by wesley (September 28, 2009 11:58 pm ET)
                 
              No,no fawlty...I don't condone stripping them of their rights.

              If any of the illegal immigrants can prove that they're here legally they should be allowed to stay...with reparations.

              If not...adios amigo.
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