Here’s a follow-up from a blog we posted about two weeks ago on the Santa Barbara News-Press, and its use of the term “illegal” when describing illegal immigrants. From William Bigelow, at Breitbart.com:
A Santa Barbara newspaper, determined to hold its ground against its critics, has continued to use the term “illegals” when describing people living illegally in the United States, prompting protests and counter-protests in the normally serene city by the ocean.
This story originally dates back to Saturday, January 3,when the News-Press wrote a front-page article titled “Illegals line up for driver’s licenses,” with an accompanied photo of many people waiting in line at the local DMV. Due to the passage of the Assembly Bill 60, motorists in California can obtain a driver’s license without the need to prove legal residence. The use of the term “illegal” sparked so much controversy that the Santa Barbara News-Press building was vandalized (or painted without authorization?) due to the criticism received over the recent article. Ironically, the undocumented painters spray-painted “The border is illegal, not the people who cross it” on the front door of the building.
According to the to the Los Angeles Times last Friday, the paper ran the following headline on its front page: “Driving Legal Opens Door to Illegals’ Past.” News-Press co-publisher Arthur von Wiesenberger defiantly wrote on the website of the Minuteman Project, “We will not give in to the thugs who are attempting to use political correctness as a tool of censorship and a weapon to shut down this newspaper.”
Demonstrators took to the streets of Santa Barbara again this past Monday, protesting against the term “illegals”, but this time they were faced with opposition – protestors from the group “We the People Rising”, which advocates stricter enforcement of laws against illegal immigration.
The counterprotesters noted, “…that the term “illegals” was appropriate since the immigrants could obtain driver’s licenses without having to prove citizenship.”
Meanwhile, the group “People Organizing for the Defense and Equal Rights of Santa Barbara Youth” has demanded the paper stop using the term “illegals,” citing that 38% of Santa Barbara’s population is Latino; 44% of Santa Barbara County is Latino.
The paper stated:
It has been the practice for nearly 10 years at the Santa Barbara News-Press to describe people living in this country illegally as “illegals” regardless of their country of origin. This practice is under fire by some immigration groups who believe that this term is demeaning and does not accurately reflect the status of “undocumented immigrants,” one of several terms other media use to describe people in the Unites States illegally…It is an appropriate term in describing someone as “illegal” if they are in this country illegally.
Two weeks ago, a publication calling itself “Latina magazine”, denounced the use of this “I” word, calling it “an outdated and dehumanizing phrase.” Their headline (use of caps by Latina) was “NEWSPAPER RUNS MOST OFFENSIVE HEADLINE AGAINST UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS EVER.”
