Nubian Message, Sept. 20, 2017 — Humans aren't illegal

NUBIANMESSAGE NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY | RALEIGH, NC | THENUBIANMESSAGE.COM | wednesday, SEPTEMBER 20, 2017

wednesday, SEPTEMBER 20, 2017 | 2

Letter from the editor Hey guys, These past two weeks have been hard on our fellow communities of color, so I want to say first and foremost, on behalf of all the members of the Nubian Message, that we support you. DACA recipients, we are glad you’re here, and recognize that you make our campus better simply by existing on it.

In this issue, we have a new section called Pass The Mic, where we invite members of our community to tell the stories that we can’t: their own. Two DACA recipients here at State have bravely come forward to share their experiences and how the recent DACA rescission affects them. Because this world is full of crazy people, and because we know for a fact there are some on NC State’s campus, they’ve chosen to remain anonymous. I want to take a moment to thank you both for contributing and having the courage to tell your story.

You’ll find Pass The Mic on center spread, along with some much needed information on DACA and proposed replacement legislation. While the rally was great and showed a lot of support, we need to keep that momentum going. Make sure you know what’s being proposed, and where our senators stand. This is a good place to start, but I encourage you to continue educating yourself and your peers, because this isn’t a problem that’s going to resolve itself, and we already know we can’t trust the current administration to look out for the needs of our brown brothers and sisters. Just saying.

THISISSUE 3 LATINX HERITAGE MONTH Highlights of this month’s events

4 DACA UPDATE An update on proposed bills

5 PASS THE MIC

Two DACA students share their stories

6 DR. CHELSEY JUAREZ

Finding familia and anthropology

7 APATHY Black people, DACA, and immigration

7 “ILLEGAL” How words make an impact

In lighter news, from Sept. 15 to Oct.15 is Latinx Heritage Month. Join MSA, the GLBT Center, University Dining and Mi Familia for a month of laughter, learning and everybody’s favorite: food. But in the midst of all that fun, let’s keep in mind what this time is really about: honoring and celebrating the heritage, culture, and future of the Latinx members of our community.

In lieu of a Blackademics feature, and in honor of Latinx Heritage Month, we have a feature on an amazing woman, Dr. Chelsey Juarez. On page 6 you can read her story of finding community and support on her unexpected journey to anthropology.

To bring this letter on home, I just want to let you all know that we are having interest meetings next month! Check the back of the issue for dates and times. We’re always looking for new writers, and the great thing about the Nubian Message (besides the melanated magic) is that we’re biweekly, which leaves a lot of time to still live your life and contribute to making sure all voices on our campus can be heard. Okay, that’s my spiel for now. You can hear the rest at the interest meeting. I hope to see you there!

Love Always, Anahzsa

The Sentinel of the African -American Community at N.C. State Since 1992.

Anahzsa Jones

Editor-in-Chief

Keilah Davis

Managing editor

Allona Wilkerson

LAYOUT DESIGNER

Only with the permission of our elders do we proudly produce each edition of the Nubian Message:

Dr. Yosef ben-Yochannan, Dr. John Henrik Clark, Dr. Leonard Jeffries, The Black Panther Party, Mumia A. Jamal, Geronimo Pratt, Tony Williamson, Dr. Lawrence Clark, Dr. Augustus McIver Witherspoon, Dr. Wandra P. Hill, Mr. Kyran Anderson, Dr. Lathan Turner, Dr. M. Iyailu Moses, Dokta Toni Thorpe and all those who accompany us as we are still on the journey to true consciousness.

news

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2017 | 3

latinx HERITAGE MONTH PREVIEW STAFF REPORT

National Latinx Heritage Month is happening now! From September 15 to October 15, OIED and Mi Familia are hosting events to celebrate. The month kicked off with a cookout sponsored by Mi Familia on Friday Sept. 15 (below).

That same night, ¡Tumbao!, a live music event sponsored by the African American Cultural Center, featured Caribe Vibe to celebrate Afro-Latinx culture (right; bottom right). Nick Rinz, a fourth-year student studying medical textiles, said, “This time in particular is to kick off Latinx Heritage Month. This is what our community does: music, fun and food.”

Here are some of the upcoming events: Wednesday, September 20 Keynote Speaker: Marisol Jimenez Talley Coastal Ballroom 6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

Marisol Jimenez, in her presentation “Ni de Aquí/Ni de Allá: Finding Roots in Community, Ancestors, and Activism,” will speak about using your history to inspire change.

September 25-29 Taste of Latin America Fountain Dining Hall 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Tuesday, September 26th GLBT Center Film Screening Talley 3285 5 p.m. - 7 p.m.

The GLBT Center will host a screening of “Forbidden: Undocumented and Queer in Rural America,” a film about Moises Serrano, a queer and undocumented activist fighting for legal protections for undocumented immigrants.

Monday, October 9 Indigenous Peoples’ Day Wednesday, October 11 Chat & Chew Poole College of Management Multicultural Student Affair’s Chat & Chew partners with the Poole College of Management to host two entrepreneurs to talk about their experiences being both Lat inx and small business owners. Samples will be available!

Friday, October 13 Salsabor Quinceañera McKimmon Center 6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

Mi Familia is celebrating 15 years of being at NC State!

All are welcome to join the celebration.

You can find a full list of events at go.ncsu.edu/lhm.

Shaun Gillie/Staff Photographer Students gather around a table of food, outside of Alexander and Turlington residents hall, provided by the LatinX community, on Friday, Sept. 15. LatinX focused organizations held the cookout to celebrate the start of Latinx Heritage Month.

Shaun Gillie/Staff Photographer Nick Rinz, a fourth-year studying Medical Textiles, and Pedro Ramos, a fourth-year studying Chemical and Paper Science Engineerinng, cook carne asada and hamburgers during the LatinX Cookout.

Priyanka Kundeshwar/Staff Photographer The African American Cultural Center put on a live music event on Friday, in Witherspoon Student Center.

Many people came, including in large part, the local salsa dancing community.

Priyanka Kundeshwar/Staff Photographer People unified through shared dances and shared music on Friday, September 15, 2017. Food and water was provided, but largely ignored in favor of joining partners on the dance floor.

wednesday, SEPTEMBER 20, 2017 | 4

news

DACA in Limbo CARL HINTZ CORRESPONDENT On Tuesday, September 5th, President Trump rescinded the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, DACA, an Obama-era policy that protected certain undocumented immigrants from deportation.

DACA protected about 800,000 people who came to the U.S. under the age of 16 and did not have legal status to live or work in the United States. North Carolina has the seventh highest number of people enrolled in DACA of any state, with more than 27,000 enrolled.

To qualify for DACA, recipients were required to show that they were currently in school, had graduated, obtained a GED, or had been honorably discharged from the Coast Guard or Armed Forces. Applicants could not have been convicted of any felonies or significant misdemeanors.

Unless a law is passed by Congress to protect former DACA recipients, as early as March 2018, former DACA recipients could face deportation.

One major concern for former DACA recipients is how the sensitive information that they shared with the US Government will be used. In applying for DACA, undocumented immigrants shared informa-

tion such as address, employer, school and biometric data, which could potentially be used by the Department of Homeland Security to deport former DACA recipients or their family members.

In his statement on DACA, President Trump said, “I have advised the Department of Homeland Security that DACA recipients are not enforcement priorities unless they are criminals, are involved in criminal activity, or are members of a gang.”

Trump’s stated reason for ending DACA is that 10 states sued the federal government over DACA, arguing that the program is an executive overreach. Trump suggested that he hopes Congress will pass some form of immigration reform that includes protections for former DACA recipients.

“I am not going to just cut DACA off, but rather provide a window of opportunity for Congress to finally act,” Trump said.

There are several proposed laws that would provide protections to undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. The DREAM Act, the Recognizing America’s Children Act, known as RACA, the American Hope Act and the

BRIDGE Act provide legal status to certain undocumented immigrants. The first three laws provide a path to citizenship.

Under the DREAM Act, sponsored

by Senators Dick Durbin and Lindsey Graham, it would take at least 13 years for eligible participants to gain U.S. citizenship. Under RACA, sponsored by Representative Carlos Curbelo, it would take a total of ten years before a participant could apply for U.S. citizenship. The American Hope Act, sponsored by Representative Luis Gutierrez, after five years, a participant could apply for US citizenship.

The BRIDGE Act, sponsored by Representative Mike Coffman, would put the DACA program into law and would extend the program for three years, but would not provide any path to citizenship.

The DREAM Act and RACA both require certain educational, work or military service requirements. While the American Hope Act does not have work requirements, it does bar those who have committed certain crimes.

There may be enough votes in Congress to pass immigration reform legislation that protects former DACA recipients, but this depends on the legislation getting to a

formal vote. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan both have a large influence over whether a proposed law will be brought to a vote.

According to a joint statement released

by Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Nancy Pelosi, President Trump has agreed to work out a law that writes DACA into law, but also increases funding for border security.

On the right, Trump supporters have criticized this proposal because it does not include a border wall. On the left, some immigrant activists and DACA recipients have expressed anger and concern over the potential deal, stating that they do not want to be used as bargaining chips in exchange for a border security or immigration enforcement package.

NC State students are encouraged to visit Student Legal Services in Pullen Hall for free legal services. Counseling and mental health services are also available through the Student Health Center.

American Hope Act

BRIDGE Act

A summary of these proposed bills in their current forms:

DREAM Act

Recognizing America’s Children Act (RACA)

• First introduced in 2001

• First introduced in 2017

• First introduced in 2017

• First introduced in 2016

• Requires higher education, military service or continuous employment

• Requires higher education, military service or continuous employment

• No education, military service or employment requirements

• Extends DACA program for 3 years

• Supports DACA recipients in application process and improving English through grant programs

• Requires education or military service

• Students would be eligible for loans and work study • Provides path to citizenship after 13 years • Would apply to all childhood arrivals at least 4 years before enactment

• Allows conditional green card status • Provides path to citizenship after 10 years

• Provides path to citizenship after 5 years • Would apply to all childhood arrivals before December 31, 2016

• No path to citizenship

features

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2017 | 5

PASS THE MIC: DACA students speak out Both of the featured stories below were submitted anonymously.

dreams deferred A CALL TO ACTION Obama passed it in 2012, the executive action. He took the matter into his own hands to help a certain population of undocumented people go for the American Dream. We were given a work permit so we could get a social security number and a license. And if you don’t know what kind of struggle it is with that, you’re lucky. You can’t do anything without a social security number.

I was able to get a bank account, a car, and go to college. The path to higher education is difficult without DACA. Not only was it helpful to get a work permit to sustain myself and my family, I was also able to pay for books, tuition, and rent. I attended a private institution that was looking for undocumented students. They offered money to give us the opportunity to seek higher education and support our families, so the fact that the government wants to take that away from us hurts. It’s like they gave us a chance at the American Dream, and then just snatched it away like, “Just kidding. We want to deport all of you.” It’s not fair.

There’s things we can’t do. I don’t feel comfortable protesting. Not on the streets or anywhere. I don’t want to get arrested; I don’t want to get anything on my record. I don’t like speaking out about it publicly, because there are people who are opposed and would try to get me deported.

I’ve been here for twenty years. I didn’t know I was a DACA recipient until I was seventeen. I moved here from South America when I was two and a half. My parents hopped on a plane, legally, and decided to come to America knowing they would never go back. There’s no resources, no bread, no food, no anything.

I don’t know any of my family members who live there. I would be going back to a very foreign country I just don’t have any recall of.

It’s the same situation for 800,000 other undocumented people. They’re not all students and they are not all working, but they have a right to be here. We’re contributing to the economy and we are doing all we can to better the society. It doesn’t make sense why I can’t benefit from that just as much as my peers who

are doing the same amount of work as I am. It sucks.

I worry about my parents. I don’t want anyone to know what my parents are going through, what happened to them and why they’re seen as criminals for coming in and overstaying their visa. It shouldn’t matter. They’re paying taxes, just like you.

They’ve done it so I don’t have to worry, and I respect that now more than ever.

We don’t like talking about politics, but now--more than ever--we have to. Not just immigration, but BlackLivesMatter, the Muslim ban and all the horrific things going on in this country. We have to address them--and we have to address them head on. Other than calling and texting, you need to educate others and make everyone realize how terrible the DACA repeal is.

Speak out and use your privilege, like the privilege that you have of voting, whenever that comes. That’s one thing that I can’t do--vote. Just really educate yourself on who to vote for, who’s for DACA and immigration rights.

To the 800,000 DACA students: Use your voice. Right now, it’s time to educate yourselves, and with all the information that you gather, you can educate your friends. I made a PowerPoint for my friends. If you want, post it on Instagram, Twitter. You can even change your name on Twitter to #DefendDACA. I would just like to thank people for the overwhelming support that myself and others have received. This just happened, but the amount of people that are ready to support me and walk for me and vote for me is overwhelming. I don’t know how else to put it in words, but I will be forever thankful for all the things you guys are doing.

Excuse my language, but we are just tired of all this shit that’s happening.

Someone sitting next to you could be on DACA and just not say anything because they are afraid to speak out. It sucks, not only mentally and physically, but we are kind of hopeless right now. We know that change is going to come, but we can’t do it on our own.

I am a recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) and a STEM student attending NC State.

I was brought to the United States when I was five years old. And like most five year olds, I have very few memories from that age of my life.

Regarding the trip here, I don’t remember it. I don’t remember the smugglers, but I do remember having to jump in a ditch and my mom feeding me to keep me quiet. I don’t remember getting settled into North Carolina, but I know that my mom already had family here.

My only school experiences have been in the United States. I started in pre-k, received ESL services in elementary school and graduated high school with 56 college credits.

I continued my education to complete two associate’s degrees thanks to a policy in the NC Community College System that allows DACA students to be sponsored by their employer, thus qualifying for in-state tuition rates.

Unlike in 21 other states, in NC, all higher education is paid at out-of-state tuition rates by DACA students no matter how long they’ve been here or how much they and their families have paid in state and federal taxes. The exception is when a DACA student’s employer is willing to sponsor them at an NC community college.

I was fortunate enough to have an employer willing to sponsor me. Not all DACA students are so lucky.

Now, I attend NC State as a transfer student, intending to get a bachelor’s in a STEM major. DACA recipients are not eligible to complete the FAFSA so not only are we disqualified from financial aid, but also from any need-based university scholarships in which the FAFSA is used as the tool to demonstrate need.

Although I have received some private scholarships, I take only one class at a time due to the costs of out-of-state tuition as well as the health insurance requirement. We cannot get health insurance except if offered through an employer or purchasing an expensive private policy (i.e. we cannot participate in the Affordable Care Act market).

Unfortunately, the two jobs I work do not offer me health insurance. One class a

semester is all that I can afford.

The DACA program allows me to drive legally and to work legally, paying the required taxes as well as the required FICA (Social Security and Medicare). However, I am barred from collecting those benefits when I am of age.

It is interesting to me that the government is willing to forego the receipts of all the DACA workers who pay into a system from which they cannot later draw a benefit.

DACA changed my life by giving me hope and tools to get where I wanted to go.

When my parents brought me to the US, they were giving me the chance to have a better life than what we would had in my country. They saw that there was more opportunity in the US and therefore decided that it was worth risking everything and leaving everything behind to come here. We now have a better life than what we would have had.

But now that I have been raised here, being surrounded by different cultures, different people, my dream became much larger than what my parents saw coming to the US and not really knowing anything about how things are done here.

Obtaining a degree, getting a well-paying job, owning a house, and just being able to provide for my family that I hope to have one day has now become my dream. I saw DACA as tremendous help when it came time to take steps in getting to what is now my dream.

DACA gave me the chance to become a great example for my nieces and nephews. Me being at NC State, has made them already start thinking about college even though they are so young.

Higher education was not in my mind until much later in my life and I’m very glad that they consider me a role model.

I now have the experience to help them and advise them when they do get to the point of applying for college.

And now, again, it is changing my life through its repeal. I will no longer be able to drive or work legally. I do not foresee how continuing my education, becoming a professional and fulfilling my potential and my family’s dreams is going to be possible.

wednesday, SEPTEMBER 20, 2017 | 6

features

DR. CHELSEY JUAREZ: finding “my familia“ KEILAH DAVIS MANAGING EDITOR “I grew up on a farm in a poor area that was predominately Latino or Portuguese,” said Dr. Chelsey Juarez, an assistant professor of anthropology. “Most of the people were working class. I certainly didn’t have an idea about the possibilities of life, that you could be something beyond a farmer, attorney, doctor, dentist, or veterinarian.

Those were the only choices we knew about.”

Juarez had many supporters, mentors and allies that helped her transition from a small town to University of California, Berkeley, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in anthropology.

“Berkeley and everything they had to offer was a foreign place for so many reasons. I didn’t come from college-going people. It became clear that if I was gonna be retained, I was gonna have to find my familia, my community. And I did find them.”

It wasn’t long before Juarez found Hermanas Unidas, a Latina social group; the Cesar Chavez Student Center at San Francisco University; and other communities for people and students of color.

Juarez attended college during California’s Proposition 209. This ballot proposition, passed by a popular vote in 1996, banned the use of race and sex in public education admissions and was opposed by groups like the American Civil Liberties Union who argued it would end affirmative action practices. Proposition 209 remains in effect today.

“People were questioning our place at the university.

There were some major players... as friends, we kept and supported each other because we were in the middle of this struggle, but then there were others like Lupe Gallegos-Diaz from the Cesar Chavez Center or John Matsui from the Biology Scholars Program who did things like make sure I had a place to live.”

In the midst of all the political strife, Juarez stumbled upon forensic anthropology. While she ended up earning her bachelor’s degree in anthropology, she entered college with the dream of becoming a doctor. It was pure coincidence and wise words from a professor that led her to the subject she now teaches.

“When I became an undergrad at Berkeley, even though my mind was being opened to all of these possibilities, I was still kind of stuck on this idea about how I had to become what I was gonna become.”

Everything seemed to be going well until Juarez’s internship at the Berkeley Free Clinic, a nonprofit community clinic that has provided free medical and dental care in Berkeley, CA since 1969.

“It became a place where the working poor and people who were homeless, and just folks in general who had a condition that they needed to be kept secret for whatever reason, would go for help and treatment. Working at the Berkeley Free Clinic, you saw a whole swath of the society and you actually got to do things.”

Juarez and other volunteers were trained as medics and learned how to see patients with issues ranging from upper respiratory infections to STDs.

Dr. Chelsey Juarez pictured above. Contributed by Dr. Juarez.

“I went there having the course part but had never really worked with people in a medical way. It was sort of a life changing experience, because I figured something out about myself that I didn’t know. I didn’t want to see the wounds of people.”

Juarez confided in one of the lead doctors at the Berkeley Free Clinic to which he replied, “What about working with dead people?” She also happened to be taking a seminar on forensic anthropology and grew very close to the professor and fell in love with the subject.

It was these circumstances that made Juarez switch her course of study from biology to anthropology during her junior year.

The woman who taught the anthropology seminar became one of Juarez’s most powerful mentors, writing

letters of recommendation for graduate school and calling the professors Juarez applied to work under.

“With her help, I met some of the women who would change my life. She helped me understand that this was a viable career and I could still work with the communities that I wanted to work with, that I could effect change in the Latino community and think about policy. She helped me understand how I could work with the dead but still affect the living, and that was really important for me.”

Juarez continued to find and make community during her graduate studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

“I had an advisor and she was British, a white woman from England. And foolishly I thought, ‘man, how is this woman ever gonna help me?’ From her I learned that your allies don’t have to look like you. They just have to believe in you and what you want to do and you have to let them.”

According to Juarez, her PhD mentor, Alison Galloway, said, “I picked you because I could tell from your statements and from the way that people talked about you on the phone that you were gonna think differently. That you were interested in things that these other people were not interested in and you were gonna change the field in a way they never would. I wanted to invest in that legacy.”

Galloway also encouraged Juarez’s efforts to increase diversity and retention of graduate students of color at UC Santa Cruz. All of the mentors who supported Juarez throughout her life inspired her to continue the work of mentoring undergraduate and graduate students.

“After I graduated, I worked there and I mentored students that I still mentor today,” Juarez said. “Most of them are students of color who went off and did all manner of different things that weren’t anthropology. A lot of people helped me and I remember them.”

Juarez is currently the co-director of the Hispanic/Latino Advisory Group, a group of faculty, staff, students and community members whose purpose is to “keep a pulse on the Latino community both at NC State and in the greater area.”

Through HLAG, Juarez works with community groups that organize festivals, demonstrations and legal help.

“What I can do while I’m here at NC State is strengthen the bonds between the communities of color and allies.

We can learn how to, together, fight the battles that are gonna come for us. Because there’s gonna be a lot.”

opinion

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2017 | E

Why Black People Must Show Up Apathy is defined as a lack of interest, enthusiasm or concern.

Dear reader, please pay attention to that last word: concern. In the black community, there is a trend of apathy toward issues that we shawn selectively do not feel FREDERICKS we, as a community, CORRESPONDENT should concern ourselves with.

I am writing this because I feel it is therapeutic to name our ghosts and demons. Apathy is a ghost that plagues many communities around the world. However, I want to highlight how a fraction of the modern-day black community, unfortunately, speaks often of struggles but does little, if anything, to beat the struggles of groups we don’t identify with.

That is not a knock on any leader or activist; it’s knock on those who expect to live their lives reaping benefits while other people do the work. Cause lets keep it all

the way authentic: a lot of black people on this campus only rep black lives matter when it’s a hot topic on social media and don’t show up for others when it matters.

A “Defend DACA” rally was held immediately after the Trump administration announced it would rescind DACA. What happened at the DACA rally would not happen in the days of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. On that day, very few leaders of black organizations showed up.

I could not, for the life of me, understand how or why leaders who often express frustration with systematic oppression did not feel the need to make their presence known when systematic oppression hit their fellow students.

We undermine the values of the black community when we do not embody and act upon those values. When we are silent on injustices that befall other communities, we become part of the oppression instead of its liberators.

I have heard people express sentiments that certain issues should stay an issue for one particular community to solve; howev-

er, in the words of the great Martin Luther King Jr. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” If oppression is allowed on one community, then oppression can be tolerated when it spreads to other communities.

When the black community highlights our own issues, we want support for our cause. So how can we as a community want the support of others whilst at the same time turning a blind eye to issues affecting other minority communities?

It is hypocrisy. And it is a hypocrisy that must be corrected in order for us to move forward to ending the systemic oppression of people of color.

I want to throw this last point out here: DACA is not just a Latinx issue, but an issue that affects people of all different pigmentations. It includes black immigrants from all over the African diaspora.

According to the Black Alliance of Just Immigration, about 575,000 black immigrants are affected by DACA. Additionally, black immigrants are already disportionately deported. BAJI Deputy Director

Carl Lipscombe was quoted in The Nation saying, “Black immigrants comprise just 5 percent of the overall immigrant population, but 21 percent of those deported as a result of criminal contact. (A similar disparity) holds true when we look at detention rates.”

Although it should not take these statistics to call people into action, I want to highlight this for those in the black community who feel this is not an issue we need to speak up about. As a community that celebrates Pan-Afrikan Week, we need to be woke and active on this DACA issue.

Let me be more specific: for the people who do nothing for the black community here at NC State and only show up to party for Pan-Afrikan Week, treating such a high ideal of unity across the African diaspora as an excuse to party for a week shames not just this community but our ancestors and predecessors. So please, when you’re called to action, answer and execute.

Illegal vs. Undocumented As a member of the Latin Community and a second generation immigrant, I know all too well the sacrifices it takes to come to the United States.

Luckily, my family was able to gain docuYesenia jones mentation upon their CORRESPONDENT arrival; however, many immigrants are not as fortunate.

Because the process of immigrating to the U.S. is long and expensive, a large majority of immigrants decide to take destiny into their own hands by finding ways to enter the United States without documentation. However, when they arrive instead of being met with support from society, they often face discrimination and are criminalized. The common usage of the term ‘illegal immigrants’ and ‘illegal alien’ only aids in criminalizing an already vulnerable people.

The use of the term “illegal” was first popularized during the Holocaust. It was used as a derogatory term for the Jews who

were escaping Nazi Germany. Today the word is commonly used to describe immigrants who come into the United States without documentation or chose to stay after their visa has expired. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, police already detain immigrants and hold them in horrible conditions for multiple weeks up to a month. What’s next: putting immigrants in concentration camps too?

According to the CNN article “Why ‘illegal immigrant’ is a slur,” even the Supreme Court omitted the use of the terms “illegal alien” and “illegal immigrant” in a 2012 Arizona immigration case. Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority opinion in the same case, stated: “As a general rule, it is not a crime for a removable alien to remain present in the United States.” Simply being an undocumented immigrant in the United States does not make one a criminal.

These people are not criminals unless they have committed an illegal act. The term illegal criminalizes the existence of a person and their ethnicity as a way to alienate them from society and create a further divide between them and the rest

of the United States.

Trump and his administration have been some of the most recent culprits in incorporating the terms “illegal immigrants” or “illegals” into politics. The use of these words in political affairs normalizes them and makes it okay for racist terminology and micro-aggressions to be used in day-to-day conversations, thus furthering the criminalization of undocumented immigrants that are only attempting to be law-abiding citizens.

Actions such as not paying your taxes or money laundering should be considered illegal, not people. While Donald Trump is being accused of many illegal actions himself, it seems as though he is attempting to take the attention off of himself by threatening the lives of the most vulnerable people in the U.S., black and brown people. He first started by running a campaign that was built around criminalizing latinos. And we all remember when he used the term “bad hombres” to describe people who cross the border. This is the same thing that happened to the Jews.

It is clear that people who choose to use the term illegal immigrant over the

politically correct terminology of undocumented immigrant, have negative opinions about immigrants in our country. As Elie Wiesel, a holocaust survivor, once said “no human being is illegal.” Therefore, the term “undocumented” is a more politically correct term to use when describing immigrants who have crossed the border without legal documentation.

Since the court systems have made this large shift to promote inclusivity, why can’t the general public do so? After Trump made the announcement about possibly repealing DACA, I have heard the terms “illegal alien” and “illegal immigrant” all over our own campus. In order for North Carolina State University to be a more inclusive campus, they should offer a program and/or educational tools for people to learn about racial slurs and microaggressions. As a college campus and a united Wolfpack, it is important that all members of our community feel welcomed and at home.