City Bans Term “Illegal” For All Human Beings

In yet another example of political correctness gone amok, a tiny city in the northeastern United States has officially banned the term “illegals” when referring to illegal immigrants.

A number of others who serve the public—among them judges and high-ranking government officials—have implemented similar policies in the last few years, including Justice Department heads, an Obama-appointed U.S. Supreme Court Justice and the chief justice of Arizona’s Supreme Court. It seems to be part of a national trend launched by the increasingly powerful open borders movement.

We’ll get back to those later. First here’s the latest of these nationwide bans on the term illegal as it relates to immigration. This week lawmakers in Somerville, a Massachusetts town of 76,000, passed a resolution forbidding the word “illegals” when referring to people, regardless of their immigration status.

The city’s mayor and alderman passed the measure after hearing from a team of youths who urged officials to give immigrants who live in the city the respect they deserve as human beings by not using terms like “illegals” to describe undocumented people. The word “illegal” is demeaning, discriminatory and unfair, according to a Colombian youth who addressed Somerville legislators.      

Another teenager told the board of alderman about a cousin who got deported last year. Police said the cousin got “caught” because he was “illegal” and “illegals were not allowed in the USA.” The exchange evidently traumatized the teenager and changed her life forever, according to a local news report recounting the compelling testimony. By using the word “illegal” police made her cousin seem like a criminal,” the teen girl complained.

Somerville’s mayor, Joe Curtatone, welcomed “anyone who wants to be part of his city, adding that the community has always been a city of hope for immigrants around the world. “… Whatever your status is, wherever you’re from, we are your mayor, we’re your aldermen, this is your city and we’re here to service you,” Mayor Curtatone said.

A few years ago, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor made history for embedding her race-based ideology into a Supreme Court opinion by using “undocumented immigrant” and “undocumented worker” in lieu of illegal immigrant in her first opinion (Mohawk Industries, Inc. vs. Carpenter) on the High Court. It was a first for the Supreme Court which had never before used the phrase “undocumented immigrant” though “illegal immigrant” has appeared in a dozen decisions.

Before that the chief justice of Arizona’s Supreme Court, Ruth McGregor, agreed to enforce the Hispanic Bar Association’s demands of banning the terms “illegal” and “aliens” in all of the state’s courtrooms. The group claimed the terms were inflammatory and that using them at trials or hearings created perceptions of judicial bias. McGregor came under fire for the order and resigned shortly after.