Calling undocumented immigrants “illegals”, as the worst of the Tea Partiers are wont to do, is a xenophobic attempt to dehumanize them, not a legitimate part of our political discourse. Wasting millions on witchhunts trying to find undocumented immigrants taking government services, even though those immigrants are paying taxes and really should have every right to those services, a la the Perry amendment or the crap the Senate passed this summer, is wrong. Politicians shouldn’t do it, and when voters make these xenophobic comments to them, they should call a spade a spade. Politicians who tolerate this crap do not deserve our votes.
I am the kind of person the moonbats here would normally try to tar and feather on immigration. I support English as an official language. I support teaching kids to speak English in school. I view this as the most compassionate position, because it allows them to actually become full members of society instead of being discriminated against by the Glenn Beck types (or even shot by the Minuteman types). But I hope we can at least find some common ground on this point.
