Teen immigrants want 'illegal' dropped from immigration debate

charlotte.news14.com
By: Pete Kaliner
10/10/2011 07:04 AM

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CHARLOTTE -- The 21st annual Latin American Festival in Charlotte featured live music, local business offers, and lots of food. It was also the venue for an effort to change the way people discuss illegal immigration.

Loan Tran, a student activist with the Latin American Coalition's youth group United 4 The Dream, said they're helping a national campaign called "Drop the I-Word."

"The "i word" being the word 'illegals,'" Tran said.

But that's not the only word they're focusing on.

"We're trying to get people to use terms that aren't derogatory," she said. "So 'wetback' and 'alien' - those are derogatory slurs."

Tran said they'd prefer people say "undocumented" or "no papers."

Members of the United 4 The Dream group were asking people to sign a petition, where people promised to drop the offending words from their vocabulary.

It's part of a national campaign launched by ColorLines, a publication of the racial justice think tank - the Applied Research Center.

According to its site, the Drop the I-Word campaign seeks to "eradicate the dehumanizing slur 'illegals' from everyday use and public discourse."

The site states: "The i-word opens the door to racial profiling and violence and prevents truthful, respectful debate on immigration."

But not all festival-goers were eager to sign the petition. Marie Rink said she could not sign something she doesn't believe.

"People coming illegally through the borders, to me, they are felons," she said. "That is wrong. It's a criminal act."

She said the lack of documents is evidence of the illegal act, not a slur.

"The United States is a diverse country, it has many cultures," she said. "I honor and respect that. But there are legal channels, and that's the way people need to come in."

Organizers hope to get 10,000 signatures. So far, they have about 4,300.

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