Immigration Rally to Drop the Word ‘”Illegal”
Sarah Batista, WBTV (Charlotte), December 20, 2011
A group of students in Charlotte are rallying to convince the community to stop using anti-immigrant language.
They say the word illegal is demeaning and criminalizing.
The United 4 the Dream group is asking the Charlotte Observer to drop the word “illegal” when referring to people in the country illegally.
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They prefer the word undocumented over other terms such as illegal alien.
Anti-illegal immigration activists say the word illegal is correct because of the group’s immigration status.
But organizers disagree.
“Not everything about that person is about their immigration status, they’re a person first, so by calling them that it’s using that to make them seem like they are less than human,” said Melissa Siegal, Organizer.
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The rally will continue each day outside of the Charlotte’s Observer’s office through Thursday.
