Umm, Largeham states some of them are refugee not illegal immigrant. (Furthermore I deplore the term illegal immigrant because it is racially motivated.) And anyways how is that Africans are considered illegal immigrants but Israeli occupying Gaza isn't? That's why I consider the move as Apartheid. It's separating people based on race.
I'm no fan of Israel, but how in the world is "illegal immigrant" a racially motivated term? Anyone of any race can be an illegal immigrant. It's clear, plain meaning is an immigrant who is in a country illegally. The fact that the people who moan the loudest about illegal immigrants tend to only be worried about certain races or ethnicities doesn't change that.
Political correctness is not only unnecessary, it reduces clarity in speech within a society. The replacement term "undocumented worker" could just as well refer to a citizen who for what ever reason is working under the table, but when people start using it in place of "illegal immigrant" for political correctness purposes then it becomes harder to speak plain, short and to the point with clarity about a citizen who is in a literal sense an "undocumented worker" because people are so used to the term meaning "illegal immigrant".
I find that the people bitch about political correctness the most tend to be the most sexist/racist or what have. Oh sure, you may think you're being edgy and all by being politically incorrect, but in reality you're just coddling to old archaic ideals.
Let's recap. When we Americans use the term illegal immigrant, we really mean Mexican. We only target brown people with our policy. It's a fucking racial motivated term.
Also, why are you reviving this thread?
Sorry I didn't look at the date.
I am an "I" not a "we". When I say "illegal immigrant" I mean exactly what it means in the dictionary. I don't care what morons use the term for.
It's not about being edgy. Political correctness distorts clarity in speech. You can't say that you are being "mentally challenged" by a crossword puzzle anymore because of a new assigned meaning in spite of the fact that the "r word" was initially a euphemism itself back when "idiot", "imbecile", and "moron" were medical terms.
Besides right-wingers are just as guilty of pushing political correctness with terms like "extraordinary rendition" for what should be called "outsourced torture".
Why all the euphemisms to muddle up language when we could just speak plainly and clearly and all understand what each other are saying? If I only had a dime for every time I got confused in a conversation because people chose not to speak clearly.
Here's a good example of my opposition to PC having nothing to do with anything remotely related to "conservatism", I think that when animal control makes decisions about killing pets they should have to use those technically correct words not "put down" and not "put to sleep". Euphemisms distort critical thinking and should be avoided. Same when lawmakers discuss that stupid breed-specific legislation. Maybe it wouldn't pass.
Euphemisms are bad. Free speech, we can't ban them, but it would help our society if they were socially disapproved of.