Quote:
Originally Posted by ThirdOfFive
A distinction without a difference. It is the CONNOTATION, not the denotation, that matters here. Especially to those Americans, such as my wife, who came here through the front door. They are American citizens who are also legal migrants. But they are Americans first. The illegals in this country who come here from other countries are by definition illegal aliens, but ILLEGAL first, last and always. They are not American citizens. They have nothing in common with the former legal migrants who became American citizens except that they came here from another country. They are living here in contravention of our laws. To use descriptors that intentionally gloss over that fact is to be--well--woke. And as such, to be furthering rather than helping to solve the problem.
It may not matter to those who have little or no direct experience with the topic other than a cursory acquaintance on, say, message boards, but it does to those involved with it directly. Sophistic word games merely clound the issue.
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It matters to me, and my family came to this country before proof of intention, proof of citizenship, passports - existed. All they needed was to prove they weren't ill, proof of their name and previous address, and they had an address in the states where they'd be staying.
Currently, under those previous criteria, they would be considered "undocumented immigrants." There are actually hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants that came here from Italy, and families of hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants that came here from Ireland. Millions that came here from various parts of Europe during and immediately following WWII. And some, like my family, who came before WWII but after WWI.
They weren't called illegal aliens then either. Most of them were called refugees. Some were called immigrants. Criminals were called criminals, whether they were refugees, immigrants, or citizens.
"Illegal" isn't a noun. It just isn't. You don't have to like it, and you live in the Free State of Florida so you can use the word however you see fit. But you'd be incorrect, as is everyone else who uses the word as a noun. Illegal is an adjective.