Quote:
Originally Posted by Iphinome
I'm also going to agree with the idea that no person can be illegal. The whole idea makes me really uncomfortable and the term suggests that such people are somehow less than the rest of us. They may very well have done something illegal but calling the person illegal has very uncomfortable civil rights implications in my mind. Law breakers still retain the basic rights of personhood.
|
Sorry that it makes you "uncomfortable", but the truth can sometimes do that to people. For far too long, we have tried to dance around the issue. Some claim that brown-skinned people are being taken advantage of, but the fact is, they are the predominant offenders. If it happened to be Chinese that illegally entered our country, we would be having the same discussion, but the people would be described differently.
I don't see how the term makes them "somehow less than the rest of us."; in the United States, criminals are criminals. As far as I know, we don't have criminals that have more or less rights than other criminals. We treat all law breakers equally, or at least we should.
It's really a very simple concept: enter the country legally and partake of great things the US has to offer. Enter the country illegally, and be treated accordingly...
as the criminal you are.