Word choice really is the Trojan horse of ideas. The "illegal" designation is effective because the rebuttal is necessarily nuanced, and in a world of sound bites and memes, nuance dies on the vine. It's easier to relegate noncitizens to the reductive "illegal" or "legal," however inaccurate, than to explain the many permutations of status and the branching roads that lands one there. To those who haven't wrestled with the dysfunctional, uncaring labyrinth that is our immigration system, it sounds like bullshit. As always, thanks for writing, Arturo. Good stuff.
Word choice really is the Trojan horse of ideas. The "illegal" designation is effective because the rebuttal is necessarily nuanced, and in a world of sound bites and memes, nuance dies on the vine. It's easier to relegate noncitizens to the reductive "illegal" or "legal," however inaccurate, than to explain the many permutations of status and the branching roads that lands one there. To those who haven't wrestled with the dysfunctional, uncaring labyrinth that is our immigration system, it sounds like bullshit. As always, thanks for writing, Arturo. Good stuff.