'Illegal' is racism in disguise

by Ramiro

Fri, May 11, 2007 3:47PM

At last night's Beret meeting one of our compañeras brought up the issue of the widely used term "Illegal Alien" and its link to the racist eugenics movement. It prompted this letter to the editors of the local corporate press.

To the editor:

Why did the Sentinel's online edition decide to run the headline "Watsonville declared sanctuary for illegals" as opposed to its hardcopy's title "Watsonville declared immigrant sanctuary"? A possible change of heart or racism in disguise?

The reality is that this concept of "illegal immigrant" is linked to the eugenics movement which had widespread support not only in the U.S., but in Nazi Germany. It was coined back when racist laws tried to root out "undesirables" from U.S. society, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act, the National Origins Act and the Johnson Reed Act, all of which were strongly supported by eugenicists and promoters of the Racial Hygiene theory. The Naturalization Act of 1790 was created so that "any alien, being a free white person may be admitted to become a citizen of the United States."

Is this enough for you to stop touting this racist concept?

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