Are Aliens crossing our Borders 'Illegal' or 'Undocumented'?

Lee Ellis

Euphemisms are being used more often these days. Once a word described what it was meant to describe; once it created a picture in everyone's mind of the qualities the word was originally designed to convey. Today, many politically correct people rush out to search for a word or expression that no longer does this, that might be confusing enough to place doubt in the listener's or reader's mind.

This is not new, decades ago, according to Answers.com, “in some versions of English, ‘toilet room,’ itself a ‘euphemism’ was replaced with ‘bathroom’ and ‘water closet,’ which were replaced (respectively) with ‘rest room’ and ‘W.C.’ Connotations easily change over time. ‘Idiot’ was once a neutral term, and ‘moron’ a similar one. Negative senses of a word tend to crowd out neutral ones, so the word ‘retarded’ was pressed into service to replace them. Now that too is considered rude, used all too commonly as an insult of people and ideas. As a result, new terms like ‘mentally challenged’or ‘special’ have replaced ‘retarded.’ In a few decades, calling someone ‘special’ may well be a grave insult, and indeed among many young school students, it is already a common term of abuse, if not yet a particularly grave one. A similar progression occurred with ‘crippled’ ‘handicapped’ ‘disabled’ ‘differently-abled.’”

Remember, too, when NOW arranged for "housewives" to become "household engineers." Then, the word, “queer” became “gay” and is now being changed back by some members of the gay movement.

I have never objected to any of these changes, but I do cringe when I see the word "illegal" suddenly become an offensive word, causing many people to get upset with this word that has always described people who break laws.

This morning, my local newspaper, in its headline story, told about 800 people in Coachella, California protesting a bill in Congress that was created in an effort to cut back on illegal aliens swarming across our borders. The bill will go after those people who hire illegals or help them get here or stay here. But nowhere in the story did the reporter use the word, "illegal" to describe the aliens who are taking jobs away from legal immigrants and costing legal Americans tax money for schools, hospitals et al. No, the writer called them all "undocumented" instead.

I guess "illegal" is too closely associated with "criminal," There is the fear by some, according to this article, that this bill will make criminals out of people who help others commit illegal acts. Hmmmm. Hasn't this always been true? I guess if you substitute the euphemism, "undocumented" for the word, "illegal," the law does not cover this.

Many objectors to these protestors and illegal aliens are not just Anglos, but also Hispanics or Latinos who have spent much time becoming American citizens and who, as a result, have built good businesses in America and have raised children who speak excellent English and read the local newspapers. Most legal immigrants do not understand why the media and a few new residents do not know and accept the meaning of "illegal." Almost all of today’s Americans have come here as a result of past legal immigration or that of their ancestors. They have earned their citizenship!

And now some cities want to be "sanctuaries" for scofflaws. Keep this up and soon there will be sanctuary towns for all different kinds of criminals --- where lawbreakers of all different types can be safe. Will pedophiles, identity thieves, and con-artists, eventually, have their own sanctuaries? They might plead discrimination if illegal aliens get sanctuaries and they don't. Would not the ACLU love having such a case?

Will we soon read that the acts of thieves, muggers and murderers are no longer classified as being illegal, but rather as “undocumented”? Or will all breakers of our laws be labeled by new words ---euphemisms---so that criminals will no longer feel offended when put in jail or sent back to their country of origin?

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Lee Ellis is a retired journalist and narrator, formerly with both CBS and Gannett (USA Weekend). He was also a combat veteran of WWII, having fought in the South Pacific invasions. He had the pleasure of interviewing Ronald Reagan as an actor and then later working to help him become Governor of California. At the age of 80, he is keeping busy writing and doing free lance narrations for radio and television. He is an active member of Rotary and the VFW.

indiolee@dc.rr.com