Thursday, October 8, 2009

War of Words: Battle of Immigration

In an innocent little blog post talking up the upcoming fifth annual Plano International Festival at Haggard Park, reporter Theodore Kim made an unfortunate aside about how Plano has so far managed to avoid controversies over immigration reform.

You know what's coming in the reader comments, right? Controversy. The very first commenter says, "Immigration reform? Funny, I though it was 'illegal immigration' reform." The second commenter immediately demonstrated that the anger is broader than just illegal immigration, taking a whack at the H1-B visa program, which is "legal" immigration. It seems that there are folks opposed to immigration of any kind, legal or illegal. And they are fighting a war of words. "Undocumented worker" is already a casualty. "Illegal immigrant" is considered a contradiction, as foreigners without visas are considered invaders, not immigrants. I'm surprised the first commenter didn't opt for "illegal alien", which is still safe to say without drawing incoming fire.

So, Plano, enjoy your festival. Celebrate diversity, I say, ducking.

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