Princeton Prof: Using Term ‘Illegal Immigrant’ ‘Sets the Stage’ for Mass Shootings

A Princeton University professor suggested that those who use the phrase “illegal immigrant” lay the groundwork for mass shootings.

“What does it mean to have a discourse in which people are dehumanized?” Princeton University professor Eddie Glaude said, appearing Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press to comment on the El Paso, Texas shooting, according to NewsBusters. The term “illegal immigrant” “places that person outside of a certain kind of sense of empathy and decency.”

Eddie Gaude

“You set the stage for people who are even more on the extreme to act violently,” Glaude said, referring to the use of this term, as well as ones like “infestation.”

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McCrory said “I’m not going to condemn people who use [the] illegal immigrant term,” to which Glaude responded “of course! Why not? Why not?”

“We have a series of laws on the book[s] against illegal immigration,” McCrory started, according to the NewsBusters transcription of the rest of the interview. “If we get rid of those laws, why don’t we just open up–”

“No human being is illegal!” Glaude interjected.

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“Illegal alien is the legally and factually correct term for people who are not lawfully in the United States. The term ‘illegal’ refers to a person’s immigration status, not their worth as a human being,” Dale Wilcox, executive director and general counsel at IRLI, said. {snip}

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