Reconstructionists: No such thing as an “illegal” immigrant
March 2, 2009 Immigration, Jewish Community, Liberal Judaism Progress By Pesach
I first noticed this thanks to “formermuslim’s,” catch on Jewschool. Shalom Rav described illegal aliens as “undocumented immigrants.” “formermuslim” noted, “My G-d! The brainwashing is self-imposed!”
And apparently, committee approved.
The Jewish Reconstructionist Federation (JRF), the political arm of the smallest religious denomination of American Jewry, has endorsed “A Faith Leaders’ Statement on Immigration,” which insists that,
“Anti-immigrant rhetoric has no place in public discourse and should not be used.”
What constitutes “anti-immigrant rhetoric”? Oh, just read the next sentence.
As a country, we value civil public discourse as the reasonable way to address our problems and arrive at solutions. Inflammatory statements and dehumanizing categorizations of any person or people, e.g. “illegals”, should be stricken in favor of factual and more accurate descriptions of the people adversely affected by our broken immigration system.
Okay, so no more talk about “illegal” immigrants, okay? Henceforth, they are to be referred to as “people adversely affected by our broken immigration system.”
Thank you in advance for your attention to this matter.
5 comments
“Okay, so no more talk about “illegal” immigrants, okay? Henceforth, they are to be referred to as “people adversely affected by our broken immigration system.”
Thank you in advance for your attention to this matter.”
You are so freaking funny.
For the left, the only laws that need to be obeyed are those they agree with.
They disagree with immigation laws, therefore they don’t need to be obeyed. Therefore those immigrants who break those laws aren’t illegal.
Immigration violations are not criminal violations; therefore, the term ‘illegal’ is incorrect. Elie Wiesel made known the phrase “No human is illegal.”
I had to explain to two sets of Israeli parents why their sons who had authorized stay from the USCIS (having timely filed for change of status prior to expiration of their current status and awaiting adjudication of same) were being detained by ICE for lacking status. One can have have authorized stay and even work authorization without having status. One branch (USCIS) of DHS (Dept of Homeland Security) recognizes both. The CBP branch (Customs Border Protection) recognizes only the authority to work, but not to be here. And ICE (Immig. & Customs Enforcement) recognizes nothing outside of status.
So, the Israelis authorized to stay and told they were just fine by immigration and their university’s designated school official were pulled off at a traffic stop and detained. They spent 46 days in jail.
You can label them illegal all you want but no one who doesn’t practice immigration law is going to appreciate the complexities involved. Second, even WILLFUL violations are not criminal but merely civil. Again, the term’ illegal alien’ is just incorrect however pervasive its use.
Immigration violations are not criminal violations; therefore, the term ‘illegal’ is incorrect.
Sorry TK, but you don’t get to define words however you please in order to win arguments.
Dictionary.com:
“il⋅le⋅gal
/ɪˈligəl/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [i-lee-guhl] Show IPA
–adjective
1. forbidden by law or statute.
2. contrary to or forbidden by official rules, regulations, etc.: The referee ruled that it was an illegal forward pass. ”
Nothing whatsoever in there about “illegal” only applying to criminal law violations. You might not like the term, but it’s perfectly accurate, and your claim that it isn’t is disingenuous nonsense.
Tara, in fairness to DK, he’s not talking about the situation you describe. I can’t speak for him, but I would assume he’d be sympathetic in that type of situation.
As for DK’s post, what bothers me about this is the way it defines “hate speech” down. To these people if something reflects a judgment they don’t agree with, they want to suppress it. Personally I try to avoid unnecessary offense, but sometimes you have to use the right terms and make judgments.
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