- Joined
- Jul 26, 2009
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Emotional outbursts aside, or a contest to decide the nastiest way to describe a human, I can't tell which, there is no single term which describes every single person who crosses the border illegally. The label has to reflect the reason they made that crossing, whether they are illegal aliens, drug smugglers, refugees, etc. While they have all certainly have violated the law by crossing the border in the first place, the term "illegal" by itself doesn't sit well with me. For one it personally brings to mind other single words used to simply dismiss and degrade people, as in to create an "other" who aren't treated with human respect, and in my opinion generally come from people who I suspect are passionate against illegal immigration not from an economic standpoint but from a cultural one. Secondly its entirely too general to have any meaning or use what-so-ever because if one of us were to actually think of a solution to this issue any practical one would have to acknowledge the different reasons people cross to begin with, the term doesn't do that. And lastly because the term "illegal" could be used to describe many American citizens, since to earn the title all the illegal aliens/immigrants/whatever you call them, had to do was do something illegal, well we know many Americans are guilty of that as well. I'm not suggesting the two are the same, in fact that would go against every point in my argument, just pointing out how too general/vague the term "illegal" by itself is.