Hillary Clinton Pledges To Stop Using Phrase 'Illegal Immigrant'

Lauren Fox
NOVEMBER 24, 2015

Facing an onslaught of criticism from the immigrant community as well as former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley's presidential campaign, Clinton said Tuesday during an online Facebook event that she will no longer refer to immigrants who enter the the country illegally or overstay their visas as "illegal immigrants."

"That was a poor choice of words," Clinton said in response to a question about the words "illegal immigrant." According to a Yahoo News report, the question came from immigration activist Jose Antonio Vargas who has been rallying candidates to think more carefully about their use of the phrase. "As I’ve said throughout this campaign, the people at the heart of this issue are children, parents, families, DREAMers. They have names, and hopes and dreams that deserve to be respected."

Clinton most recently attracted the ire of immigration activists when she invoked invoked the phrase "illegal immigrant" during a stop in New Hampshire.

“Look, I voted numerous times when I was a senator to spend money to build a barrier to try to prevent illegal immigrants from coming in,” Clinton said at the time.

But, in a Democratic primary campaign where Clinton has tried to present herself as even more progressive on immigration than President Obama with promises that she would expand executive actions for immigrants in the country, the phrase "illegal immigrant" has become a lightning rod. After Clinton used the phrase in New Hampshire, the O'Malley campaign released a statement blasting her for it.

"Words matter, and no human being is illegal," an O'Malley campaign statement from Nov. 10 said. "This offensive rhetoric has no place in our Party. We need to stand up and lead with the compassionate message and actions that make us who we are"

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So what are you saying Ms Rodham , don't call you a criminal either ?

Naw.... it's just that it's 2 big words together that gives her problems

h they immigrate illegally, but people who immigrate illegally is just so much longer than 'illegal immigrant'

lol

seriously, I see both sides, on the one hand most people with common sense understand the term to refer to the immigration status of a person and nothing to do with whether they have dreams and all that other stuff

on the other hand , semantics matter,,, I mean we don't call pharmacists 'drug dealers',, because their license gives them a professional title

yes, they are to be respected for having dreams but not for the way they go about them if they break the law

we don't worry about 'respecting' a thief because they want a better life,,,


,,,,,,anyway, because the term 'illegal immigrant' is so negative and lumps so many situations into one, perhaps the term 'undocumented immigrant',, would suffice


the reasons for them to not have documents range, from outright deceptively sneaking in, to being brought over by adults when just children, to merely letting paperwork expire after going through all the legal channels to come in,,,

Does Hillary and Clinton this two words sound offensive? I hope She is on the sinking boat and her pledges mean something only to her.

In other word play news, "crack dealer" is off the table. The correct nomenclature is "unregistered pharmaceutical entrepreneur"

I wonder what words she uses in private...when no one who votes is around?

her Bwain-Tumor must be acting up again!

Obama bin Laden approves of this message.

that's just very liberal of her, just to overlook the fact they are illegal... sounds like someone needs some votes... that "no need to show ID while voting" comes in real handy about now...

No.

"Ethically challenged."

Oh wait, that's pc passe too.

"Amorally capable."

if the the title say so, then the democracy say so. that's for sure the willness of people always harder then the policy. unless some need a whole lot of cash to doing more investigation through the inspecting process again. then........