Wait, is that what I think it is? No! So, you
know, as somebody who works at a community college,
I am very familiar because we use this term a
lot with the term undocumented immigrants, undocumented
peoples. And, you know, I think there's... And
within the sphere of people who work in this
area, there's nothing particularly controversial
about it. But I think in the general public,
the kind of feel I get from the way that people
respond to me when I use the word undocumented
is that they seem to see it as some sort of woke
ideology shit, some PC police shit, okay? So
I wanted to kind of clear the air, okay? Look,
this is not about being woke. This is not about
being empathic towards a group. For some, it
might be, but for me, it's not. For me, it's
very straightforward. Instead of calling immigrants
who do not have the proper paperwork, like, for
instance, a green card, instead of calling them
illegal, I think that undocumented is just a
more accurate term for the people described.
It's just a more accurate term. If anything illegal,
quote unquote, right, immigrant is a more inaccurate
term, right? The word illegal to describe this
group of people is more inaccurate because illegal
carries certain connotations that I think are
not warranted, that is not grounded in truth,
okay? So let's back up for a second and let's
think about this, okay? What do you associate
with illegal, okay? well is it just by definition
is just breaking a law breaking the law here
in the united states one of the many laws that
we have okay but what laws exactly okay so let
me ask you this right when you speed one mile
per hour over the speed limit you technically
broke one of the laws of the road okay all right
Did you do something illegal? You're like, yeah,
yeah, maybe I did. Okay, but let me ask you this.
Is that really what you think of when you think
of somebody who did something illegal? If I told
you like, hey, I'm about to do something illegal,
are you thinking that I might drive a little
bit over the speed limit? Probably not, okay?
If you file your taxes late or renew your car
registration late, right, you technically broke
some rules, okay? And you break it for a long
enough time, maybe it becomes a little bit more
serious, but did you do something illegal? Is
that what you think of when you think of illegal?
Illegal activities? Are you thinking of something
else? Look, if I forgot to pay my traffic ticket,
did I do something illegal? What constitutes
illegal here? What is it that you're thinking
of? Or are you thinking of me by robbing or killing
somebody? OK, my guess, this is just my guess,
is that when we use the word illegal, most often
we associate it with something a little bit more
serious, something that involves possible harm
to other people or something of at least a grander
scale. Right. We're not thinking of things like,
you know. I don't know, jaywalking. And this
is part of the reason that I have to kind of
like say, like, look, I broke a law. I technically
did something illegal. We say things like this
because there are things that we associate with
the word illegal that implies that it's something
a little bit more serious so that when you do
something that doesn't seem all that serious,
even if it breaks a law, right? We're like, technically
it's illegal, but you know, it's not a big deal.
That's what we're thinking, right? And we had
to make that qualification because again, the
connotation is illegal implies something really,
really bad. Okay. Now let's take a look at what
the, what. is under this umbrella of people who
are undocumented, quote unquote, okay? So here's
some cases I want to throw out at you. And then
I want you to kind of like ask yourself, right?
What do all of these cases kind of have in common,
okay? Case one, imagine your parents brought
you to the United States. This is a pretty common
case, right? When you were a child and you don't
have the proper identification. You don't have
a green card. You don't have a social security
card, right? Your parents never said anything
to you. You didn't know. You just lived your
life because you're a kid. You go to school,
right? And you're like, oh yeah, la la la la,
right? I'm going to school. I'm getting all...
the things that i need to do and then you get
to college and you're like oh shit i didn't know
that i didn't have a green card or social security
card right i didn't know that i wasn't a u .s
citizen okay case two You were in the U .S. for
travel. You overstayed your visa. A lot of these
countries will say, hey, you could have up to,
let's say, three months visiting the United States,
but after that you have to come back. You can't
overstay your welcome. And you've been staying
in the U .S. for a year since. So your visa ended,
and then you stayed a year after because you're
just like, well, I'm just going to stick around.
I like it here. Maybe I found some work, and
I found some people that I really connected with.
I wanted to stay a little bit longer. state for
an extra year, okay? Now, you technically don't
have the proper paperwork to stay in the United
States, right? You violated your visa, okay?
All right, case number three. You were kidnapped
as a baby from outside the United States, then
smuggled into the U .S. against your will to
work without pay, right? This is human trafficking,
okay? And you have no identification because
the kidnapper stole all of your identification.
So then, you know, nobody is able to identify
you, okay? Case four. You're a student in the
United States. You didn't know that your student
visa required you to switch to a work visa once
you graduated, right? There's all these rules
about, you know, what kind of visa allows you
to stay for what period of time and for what
reason, right? So if you wanted to stay longer,
you have to switch over to a work visa of some
kind unless you continued your schooling. And
even then, you have to file some paperwork. But
you just... didn't bother to go ahead and do
it. You didn't think you had to because you were
hired for a job, but you didn't switch over the
visa paperwork. And you just continue because
you just, you know, sometimes life gets ahead
of you. And then you're just like, oh, I just
fell through the cracks and I didn't realize
that I had to do X, Y, and Z. Okay. So you just
kept on working for years without knowing. And
you've been in the United States ever since.
Okay. Question. All of these cases have some
violation of immigration rules. to varying degrees
and in different ways. Okay? That much I think
is clear. Okay? All of these involve a violation
of rules, of laws. Okay. If you say that they
are all illegal, that's a little bit misleading.
Again, why is that? It's because the word illegal
has a lot of connotations about the kind of activities
that we associate with illegality, right? It's
anything like drug dealing, murder for hire,
you know, like hit and run, something like really
bad, okay? But notice that these are varying
degrees of severity, okay? These are, in some
ways, like, look, one thing that's clear is that
they are violations of the law in some form or
fashion, for sure. but to call them illegal,
all of them illegal, lumps them all into the
same group of things, okay? Lumps them all into
the same group. I could put in a case five here,
right, which is somebody who illegally sneaks
in the United States so that they could commit
some murders, okay? That's a violation of immigration
law. Case number five, let's include that, right?
Okay, when you think of illegal, you're not thinking
that, like, so in other words, all five of these
cases, let's say, To lump them all together,
you need to see the common thread. And the common
thread is not, the word illegal doesn't actually
capture the common thread. What captures the
common thread is that there was some violation
of immigration law that has to do with not having
proper documentation, right? Not having an approved
visa, not having a passport, not having a green
card, right? Some sort of documentation that
allows you to stay in the United States because
this is how immigration is operating, right?
Okay. Hence, it seems like the more accurate
term to describe this lump of people is undocumented.
Am I saying that some of them, some of the members
within this larger group, we couldn't call illegal
because they are engaging in a lot of illegal
activities? I'm not saying that you can't, but
what I am saying is that the illegal probably
is not referring to the immigration violation.
It's probably referring to some other shady criminal
activity they might be up to, if they're involved
in that at all, okay? But as I said, most of
these cases don't involve those kinds of activities.
They just involve, well, in a lot of cases, honestly,
just overstating visas, right? A lot of people
who make it into the United States and are here...
quote -unquote illegally, violating immigration
law, and they just stay here when they are not
allowed to be in the United States. So many of
them just fly on over. They just visit the United
States from places like Europe and Asia, and
they just stay. Because once your visa is up,
it's not as if somebody tracks you down and deports
you back home to the previous country that you
came from. No! No, they don't. So they just stick
around. That's what happens in a lot of these
cases, okay? Look, I personally don't care what
term people use. I just care that it accurately
reflects reality. Because I think when it doesn't,
it starts sounding like some dog whistle type
shit where people are trying to imply something
that, you know, is not accurate, okay? And this
is the problem. If illegal was a more accurate
way of describing what's happening here, then
that would be a fine term for me to use. I would
have no problem with it. But the problem is that
it does carry these negative connotations about
the severity of what it is that you're doing.
And because it does, it's not an accurate description
of what's actually happening in immigration.
It's just not. It doesn't actually capture what's
happening here. And so look. Regardless of how
you might use a word, maybe when you use the
word illegal, you're like, I'm not thinking of
all these negative connotations. Fine. For you,
congratulations to you. That's not the way the
word operates for you. But language is shared.
We use language to communicate things from one
person to another. And so when you don't use
language in the way that everyone else is using
it, you're going to mislead them. You're either
doing it purposely or you're being ignorant.
Either way, you're having the impact of creating
a false reality for the people who are listening
to what it is you're saying. Look, if illegal
just simply meant that you violated some law
and that was the only thing that people thought
of or experienced when they heard the word, then
again, this would not be a problem. But because
there is, this is why a lot of people are calling
out the use of the word illegal immigrants as
a kind of dog whistle. as a way to kind of signal
xenophobic and racist -ass ideas. Because let
me tell you something, right? When I hear people
using the term illegal immigrants and I ask them,
who are you referring to? It's always the same
group of people, the people coming in from South
and Central America. Darker complexion, different
language. And they're sneaking in over the border.
This is the image that has been created in their
head. And it doesn't surprise me because, again,
the word illegal often has certain connotations
that do not actually capture reality. But the
reality is that a lot of people enter the United
States and stay in the United States without
proper paperwork. And they do so coming from
all over the world. And they are not fitting
into this sort of, you know, whatever image that
people have of quote unquote illegal immigrants.
Okay. In fact, a lot of them are flying in over
from Europe, Canada, Australia, all parts of
Asia. They have very light complexion and they're
here to overstay their welcome. If you're actually
going to go after immigration violation, if you're
just going to start rounding up all of these
people. I'm betting you that most of the people
across the world, like if you saw in the news
and they accurately reported and showed pictures
of all the people that are being deported for
violating these visa rules or things that, you
know, they're not properly documented so that
they're allowed to stay in the United States,
people will be pleasantly surprised that so many
of them look nothing like the image they probably
had in their head. And that's probably because
these words did a good job. in creating a false
reality. And that's why you buy into bullshit,
okay? So look, I don't care what word you use
as long as it's accurate. For me, that's what
matters, okay? Even for me, I don't know. Maybe
there's a better word than undocumented, okay?
What I do know is that illegal immigrant is definitely
not a very accurate term, okay? And if you want
to claim that you want to crack down on immigration
violations, then fine. Be about it. I don't care
as long as you're accurate. As long as you're
accurate. If you're going to be consistent, then
we could have a reasonable discussion. If you're
not going to base it on reason, then we have
a problem. If you're not going to base any of
your decisions and your thoughts on reality,
then I don't know how to have a reasonable conversation
with you, okay? So what I need is for you to
at least make sure that you're being accurate.
And consistent. So if you're saying that you
care about immigration violation and you're saying
that you want to have a pathway to citizenship,
but one that's done in a legal way, one that's
done without any violation of any of these rules
or laws, that's perfectly fine. Then you wouldn't
be asking for a border wall on the southern border
of the United States. You would be asking for
ICE to go around and check actual visas and which
people have overstayed their visa and then start
shipping them out. I'm guessing we're going to
start getting a lot of ICE, you know, members,
like ICE officers going into all parts of the
United States and just carrying out a bunch of
people that don't look like the thing that you
thought were going to be shipped out. I guarantee
you a lot of them did not come through the southern
border at all. Probably going to be a lot of
Canadians, surprisingly, so, right? It's just,
again, that's the reality. But guess what? You
wouldn't know that if you were too focused on
insisting that all of them are illegal. So at
least get the terminology right, okay? Not for
the sake of woke PC shit, but rather because
it's just more accurate.