A Response to Ruben Navarrette
I respectfully disagree with your recent column, “It really ought to be `illegal’,” in which you state that “illegal immigrant” is the appropriate designation for people in the United States without a valid visa, and criticize use of the term “undocumented immigrant” by Chief Justice Sotomayor. For immigrants’ rights advocates who object to your usage, you have the term “quibble.”
Words matter. As a writer, this must be obvious to you, as it is obvious to me as a physician who has to explain uncertainty and bad news to patients and their families. Words are surrounded by entire clouds of unconscious and conscious connotations. The connotations determine our understanding of the spoken and written communications composed of these words.
Your column is itself an excellent demonstration of this fact. You explain your preference for the term “illegal immigrant” with your understanding that people who are here without a valid visa chose to break the law by crossing the border, and choose to continue breaking it by living and working here. This understanding is your frame of reference for how we should call this group of people. Therefore, “illegal immigrant” is a good choice of words for you.
In contrast, my understanding, based on my personal experience with individuals and families who are here without a valid visa, is that the majority need to support children, aging parents, and more extended family members, and have no way of doing so in their home countries – where they would much prefer to be, among their loved ones, if they could only provide food, housing, schooling, and modest pleasures locally. They know that for decades, jobs (hard, dirty, dangerous, poorly paid, but available) have been on offer by US employers while for decades, US policy has been not to make visas available along with those jobs.
My frame of reference is therefore, that in the poor countries of Latin America (and Asia), many who feel the obligations of family most acutely are compelled to work here. Since they cannot do so with a visa, they brave the literally mortal dangers of crossing the border without a visa. In my frame of reference, many of the people here without a visa have undertaken such enormous tasks and endured such – to you and me – unimaginable hardship, that they are heroes of love, courage, and responsibility.
The fact that in the process, they have contributed enormously to this country, and have made the lives of Americans easier, as well as having made many Americans rich, is a separate issue that has less bearing on the question at hand – whether the estimated 12 million people in this country without a valid visa should be referred to as “illegal immigrants.” If they are here without a visa from free choice – analogously, say, to the millions of people who freely choose to break drug laws by routinely using marijuana, crystal meth, cocaine, or prescription drugs – this term conveys connotations that may reflect accurately on their behavior. If, on the other hand, they are here because they are following the highest moral imperatives, and are forced into breaking laws because the laws were designed principally to make a supply of cheap pliant labor available to US employers – then the term “illegal immigrants” conveys false connotations.
I would go so far to argue, that the term “illegal immigrant” bears the same relationship to immigration law as the term “mulatto” had to miscegenation law until 1967.
Are the words “undocumented immigrant” better? For lack of a more accurate term, which would encompass the sense of obligation to family, the conditions of deprivation and injustice at home, and the willingness to endure enormous suffering, which to me distinguish the majority of people we are considering, I would say yes.
I am also sending this letter to Professor Kevin Johnson, of the website from which I learned of your column, “Immigration Prof Blog.” If he feels it can contribute to the discussion on his blog, I am content to have him post it as an open letter.
Thank you for your work.
Sincerely,
Julia Koehler, MD