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August 15, 2005

Invasion?

Jay Tea at Wizbang justifies calling the illegal immigrant problem an invasion, by citing the following:

  • "large groups of foreign nationals crossing the border without permission or documention"
  • "portions of the country essentially "occupied" by those who speak a foreign language, to the point where that language has supplanted English for all official business"
  • "portions of the country that have, in essence, declared federal laws null and void within their boundaries and chosen to side with the invaders"
  • "invaders illegally getting wealth and sending it home, much like the pillaging Vikings"
  • "invaders proudly hoist the flags of their native lands"
  • "invaders commit acts of violence against Americans"
  • "Is there a nation or nations that are openly threatening us? No. But let's take a look at Mexico. They publish and give away books showing the best ways to illegally enter the United States. They give out "Matricula Consular" IDs to virtually anyone for the asking, conveniently overlooking that the only people who would need such an ID are illegal aliens -- legal immigrants already have some form of ID issued by the United States government."
  • "Do they pose a threat to average Americans? I think they do."

Jay Tea ends with this:
It's a war, folks. Just because the invaders don't wear scary uniforms and no nation or nations is announcing "we will bury you" doesn't make it any less of a threat.

While I suppose one could list a number of assonances between the immigration problem and the effects of a military invasion, that no more makes the immigration problem a war than the fact that there are similarities between taxation and slavery make taxation the same as slavery. But Jay Tea is correct that this is an invasion, just not in the sense that he means it.

The original meaning of invasion did not necessarily have a military context. The Latin root (in + vadere) means simply "to go towards" or "to go into", and it generally denoted what we would now consider migrations into new territory. (Take, for example, the invasions of Ireland.) In fact, the current meaning of the word invasion comes from the similarities of effect between military invasion and population invasion. In that original, classic sense, the immigration problem is an invasion, and there's no need to resort to extended use of assonance to justify the use of the term.

Posted by jeff at August 15, 2005 3:44 PM

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Comments

"Do they pose a threat to average Americans? I think they do."

Does he actually bother to spell out how? What is this guy smoking? Immigrants are the lifeblood of the US economy. The current immigration scheme is screwed up in several ways, but this sort of xenophobia is foolish and irresponsible in the extreme.

Posted by: Matt McIntosh at August 15, 2005 4:43 PM

The full quote is: "Do they pose a threat to average Americans? I think they do. In addition to the economic havoc they wreak (hospitals along the southern border are forcing to close down from unpaid bills treating illegal aliens, in order to work they have to commit identity fraud and/or identity theft, they drive down the average salaries of workers, and so on), let's look at one detail: Thousands, tens of thousands, perhaps millions (it's impossible to make a truly accurate count) of people enter the United States illegally every day. Could the same techniques that bring people across the borders also be used to bring in drugs? Terrorists? Weapons? Yes, yes, and yes -- and all have been done, and will continue to be done. And, I fear, sooner or later, some really, really big weapon (yes, I'm talking about a WMD here) will make it into the country."

Clearly, in the entire post, Jay Tea is speaking specifically of illegal immigration. (Both sides of the debate tend to use the word "immigration" to mean "illegal immigration".) So no, it's not xenophobia, just lazy use of language.

Posted by: Jeff Medcalf [TypeKey Profile Page] at August 15, 2005 6:50 PM