From Paul W. Voegeli

Monroe

To the Editor:

In a letter that was published on January 7, the writer objected to the use of the term “illegal aliens” to describe those people who broke the law when they entered this country. He believed that those people should be referred to only as “undocumented” and that the term “illegal alien” is “pejorative”. The fact that the reason that those people are undocumented is because they entered this country illegally. Thus, either of the terms “illegal alien” or “undocumented” accurately describes them. The two terms are interchangeable and are simply stating facts.

The writer of the January 7 letter correctly points out that all of us, except for American Indians, are descendants of immigrants. However, it is unclear why he thinks that is relevant to how we refer to those who are now breaking the law to get into this country. The important point is that our ancestors who immigrated to this country did so legally. The ancestors of most Green County residents came from Europe. They sailed across the Atlantic and disembarked legally at Ellis Island in New York harbor. There immigration agents processed them and provided them with proper government documentation. They were neither “illegals” nor “undocumented”.