A modern-day glossary in the Illegal Aliens lingo — actually only for June 3, 2010. They keep changing the words and phrases, yet the meanings are the same…
1. Fix A Broken System: uh, no, it is not broken. You just don't like it. When they say the system is broken they actually mean illegal aliens face deportation, and that America is not admitting enough legal immigrants fast enough. The fact is illegal aliens aren’t supposed to be in the United States – by definition they do not have legal status. As regards our level of legal immigration, America currently allows in more than one million people a year, more than any other industrialized country on the planet – and way too many.
The bottom line is that the only thing broken about our immigration system is an unwillingness to impose sensible limitations and enforce the laws. Truth in labeling might suggest that their version of “fixing a broken system” should be read as “making a broken system worse.”
2. Path to Citizenship: these dumb feel-good words for amnesty wear thin quickly so the new phrase “path to citizenship” is just one more. We already have a “path to citizenship” and it starts with applying for a green card and getting in line.
3. Go to the Back of the Line: not exactly what you think it is. They want to create a brand new line for those who have broken the law right here in this country.
4. Get Right with the Law: really means that we ignore the law and all break the law by waving a magic want (perhaps Harry Potter's) to make 13 million ILLEGAL people all of a sudden "legal." Then all is right with thte world and we are all “right with the law.” No, that is ignoring the LAW.
5. Undocumented Workers: old phrase and it still means "illegal aliens", but amnesty advocates want you to erase ther illegality with that magical word. The proper reference is “illegal aliens.” “Illegal” means prohibited by law. Yes, entry without inspection into the U.S is prohibited. And “alien” is a term defined in 8 U.S.C. Section 1101 and used by legal professionals across the board including the United States Supreme Court. It’s ok to say illegal aliens. You’ll be in good company.
6. Orderly Flow of Workers: refers to our foreign guest worker program. In addition to the 1.2 million legal immigrants the U.S. admits each year, and the 13 million illegal aliens currently living here, the U.S. also brings in another one million foreign nationals through work visas year after year. Hardly needed with our national unemployment rate of 9.9 percent! Instead of “orderly flow of workers” the proper translation is “more foreign labor to take your job.”
7. Secure the Border: hollow words because while they promise to secure the border, the special interests don’t mean it and they don’t want to do it. Look at their track record: they have stymied every single piece of immigration enforcement legislation and pressured the Obama administration to systematically dismantle the little immigration enforcement we have.
There is immigration enforcement and then there is amnesty.
I love the science of Language (it was my field), but …
A very great part of the mischiefs that vex this world arise from words.
— paraphrasing Bob Dane
