I saw this back in February on Hannity and Colmes. San Francisco County supervisor Gerardo Sandoval tried to convince viewers that the term "illegal immigrant" was a racial slur on the same level as the "n" word. I was banging my head against the wall at the man's obtuseness at about the same time that Hannity was getting ready to pull his own hair out.
Full trascript is here:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,110178,00.html
Some highlights:
SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: Mr. Supervisor, it's Sean Hannity here. Welcome to the program. Thank you for being with us.Let me ask you something. We have laws on the books, correct?
SANDOVAL: Absolutely.
HANNITY: And if somebody enters this country without the proper documentation, they come here illegally, that's a crime, right?
SANDOVAL: It is. It's a violation of the law.
HANNITY: It's a crime. So they broke the law? They broke the law, right?
SANDOVAL: They have broken the law.
HANNITY: And what they did is illegal.
SANDOVAL: That's correct.
HANNITY: And that is the truth, isn't it?
SANDOVAL: It is correct.
HANNITY: Why would it be -- why would you compare that accurate, truthful adjective with somebody who breaks the law. They're just saying you're here illegally. I mean, how do you go from there to the "n" word? That's insane.
SANDOVAL: Well, because there are lots of laws that are being broken and to suggest -- no disrespect for the law -- suggests that the laws are not legitimate.
HANNITY: No, but if you break the law, you're illegal. You're an illegal immigrant. You're not a legal immigrant. You're an illegal immigrant...
...It is a matter of respect for this country's laws, respect for our sovereignty, and it is not -- for you to compare this to the "n" word, it diminishes the offensiveness of that term and real racism.
SANDOVAL: A hundred years ago that term was not considered offensive. Today clearly it is, and in 100 years or less, you'll see that "illegal alien," that term "illegal" and...
HANNITY: Political correctness will not go this far. Nobody agrees with you. I mean, only the far, far extreme left. It's not going to -- this is crazy.
I think Sandoval reflects why the immigration problem is so bad. Instead of trying to keep illegal aliens from entering the country, we have people who say we can't call them by a term for what they are and insist that we provide water tanks in the desert so that they won't be thirsty when they break our laws.