Ben Shapiro's Daily Wire posted an article quoting an illegal alien "DREAMer" as saying she would self-deport if Congress took no action on amnesty ("DREAMers Threaten to Leave the Country if Congress Doesn't Reach a DACA Deal" by Emily Zanotti).  "I will leave.  I will leave America as soon as possible," she claimed.

Well, good for her!  Why wait?  This would be a great little bit of news except for one thing.  The author refers to this woman and her sister as "undocumented citizens," one-upping the left's already manipulative and disingenuous term "undocumented immigrants."  And I go to extra trouble to point this out because the Daily Wire is a great publication, and Ben Shapiro himself is an expert at discrediting the left's narrative.

So I have to ask, where did the term "undocumented citizens" come from?  Since when were any of these people "citizens"?  They are not citizens, undocumented or otherwise.  They are not even immigrants.  They are illegal aliens.  An immigrant is someone who has established citizenship.  Look it up.  Anyone in the U.S. who has not is an alien, legal or otherwise, by definition.

Furthermore, they are not "undocumented"; they are illegal.  At best, "undocumented" is merely a descriptive word for those who come to the U.S. illegally.  They are "undocumented" only in the sense that they do not possess documents attesting to a legal status in the U.S.  In fact, most of them do carry documents – e.g., a driver's license or other ID from their home countries – so it is not even necessarily true that they are undocumented.

The left invented this language to present a less negative image than what "illegal alien" implies and, most importantly, to append the word "immigrant."  In so doing, they ignore the legal definition.  It not only debases the English language, but also seeks to undermine the rule of law.  None of this is anything new for the left.  In fact, the misuse of language is one of the left's primary weapons.

And leftists' strategy is quickly revealed.  They drop the "undocumented" and just refer to illegals as "immigrants" – fraudulently conflating illegal aliens with legal immigrants.  Then they feel liberated to make all kinds of hilarious claims – e.g., "think what would have happened if we had denied entry to Albert Einstein, who immigrated [legally] from Europe!"  Suddenly, illegal aliens are all potentially the next Einstein.  How could we deny our nation its future saviors?  Leftists are actually making such claims!  It's almost as hilarious as Nancy Pelosi's eight-hour speech – or would be, were it not so damaging.

So now they feign offense when anyone opposes illegal aliens – calling the opposition "anti-immigrant," "bigots," "racists," yada, yada.  It has nothing to do with immigration because these people are not immigrants.  It is an entirely contrived narrative, invented to advance the left's open-borders agenda, which is really an effort to subvert our nation by swamping it with illegal aliens.  These aliens steal jobs from American citizens and legal immigrants, side with the left on a multitude of issues, and vote Democrat (indistinguishable today from the extreme left) as soon as they get amnesty.

The left has turned the term "illegal alien" into a form of hate speech, while the truth is that "undocumented immigrant" is truly the hate speech.  Leftists are defined by their hatred of anyone who challenges their agendas.  The true haters are those who attack people legitimately concerned with national security and the rule of law.  Illegal immigration threatens both.

Zanotti has taken it one step farther by calling illegals "undocumented citizens."  Ben Shapiro must have missed this one, because I can't imagine him condoning that term.  It not only pushes the left's duplicitous narrative, but one-ups it.

We all have to learn to stop legitimizing the left's illegitimate agendas by using their duplicitous language.  See it for what it is, and call illegal aliens what they are: illegal aliens.

Correction to "The Daily Wire goes PC on immigration"

A reader corrected me on my definition of "immigrant" in this article. I am usually careful, and thought I had been here, but was wrong and will always correct myself when proven so. I had defined an immigrant as someone who has established citizenship. I was wrong. An immigrant is anyone who has moved to a country with the intention of establishing permanent residence there. Thus you do not need to be a citizen to be called "immigrant". However, you cannot be called a "citizen" until you have established citizenship. An alien who has established residence legally (but not been naturalized) is called a legal permanent resident, a legal immigrant or resident alien. According to the Immigration and Nationality Act, an illegal alien can also be called an "immigrant," even though that person's attempt to establish residence has not been legal. The term "undocumented" has also been introduced into the legal jargon. Similarly, there was a recent push (no surprise) by the pro-amnesty crowd to have the Library of Congress redefine illegal alien because it hurts their cause. Bowing to political correctness as one might expect in our increasingly degenerate culture, the LoC has complied. The word "alien" is being replaced by "noncitizen", and "illegal alien" will be described with two words, 1. "noncitizen," and 2. "unauthorized immigration." Why did they do this? In their own words, "the phrase illegal aliens has become pejorative." Why did it become pejorative? Because the leftist echo chamber made it that way - degrading yet another term that doesn't suit its agenda and misdirecting our nation over what that agenda is: absolute power and control. I will continue to call them what they are: illegal aliens.