San Francisco County Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval thinks it is offensive to refer to illegal immigrants as 'illegal immigrants'.
He believes that phrase is offensive--as offensive as the 'n' word. And racist--Sandoval contends that we, the offensive term users, only use the term to refer to Latino and Hispanic immigrants and not others.
I believe he is just more sensitive when the phrase is used to describe Hispanic and Latino immigrants because he is either Hispanic or Latino himself (didn't know there was a difference?).
Personally, I use it to refer to all illegal immigrants, regardless of which foreign territory they come from.
Mr. Sandoval is lobbying to eliminate the phrase from American public discourse. He believes a better term would be the phrase 'undocumented worker.' Hmmmph.
First of all, not all ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS (can everybody say it with me?--ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS) are undocumented workers. Plenty of them are just here hanging around sucking our resources dry (this is a huge factor in the current California budget crisis).
2nd of all, they are referred to as ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS because--um duuuuhhhhhh--they ARE illegal immigrants.
Let me help Sandoval out with this...
illegal (adj.): not according to or authorized by law
immigrant (n.): one that immigrates, as a person who comes to a country to take up permanent residence
© 2001 by Merriam-Webster, Incorporated
There just is not anything offensive about it. It's simply the most accurate description.
Mr. Sandoval should be more concerned about these immigrants' disrespect for our laws rather than trying to cover it up by taking away the 'illegal' label.
When is everybody going to get real about immigration? Here are the numbers.
If baffles me day after day why our politicians won't deal with this. The solution is so simple.
The US welcomes large numbers of immigrants. As Dennis Miller says, we don't mind you coming over, just sign the guestbook on the way in.
What is so $%*#ing hard about that?
Updated: Forgot to post that the source was his interview on Hannity & Colmes.
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