The ad hominem attack is a formal debating tactic of attacking your opponent's character as opposed to answering their argument. It is a de facto admission of the inability to win the debate on the merits of one's argument alone. Example: calling an immigration reductionist racist, nativist, or xenophobe.
An alien is defined by the U.S. Citizenship and Naturalization Services as "any person not a citizen or national of the United States". The term is defined by United States statute, in Section 1101(a)(3) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (with amendments by Congress through 2001). Aliens can be either legally or illegally present in the U.S.
The term "alien" is purposefully and appropriately used in US Government documents, such as in:
"AR-11, Alien’s Change of Address Card", and
"Immigration and Nationality Act(INA) — An Act of Congress that, along with other immigration laws, treaties, and conventions of the United States, relates to the immigration, temporary admission, naturalization and removal of aliens".
See:
U.S. Citizenship and Naturalization Services, Glossary of Terms, as of April 3, 2013. See: What is an alien?, Juan Mann's Frequently Asked Questions About Immigration and the Law, VDare.com, December 11, 2002.
An anchor baby is a child born to illegal alien parents within the borders of the United States. The child is born as an American citizen and under the 1965 immigration Act, can be used to facilitate citizenship for the immediate - and ultimately the extended - family.
The 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868 to protect the rights of native-born black Americans, whose rights were being denied as recently-freed slaves. The amendment states that "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States..." In 1866, Senator Jacob Howard clearly spelled out the intent of the 14th Amendment by writing: "Every person born within the limits of the United States, and subject to their jurisdiction, is by virtue of natural law and national law a citizen of the United States. This will not, of course, include persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers accredited to the Government of the United States, but will include every other class of persons."
The original intent of the 14th Amendment was clearly not to facilitate illegal aliens to defy U.S. law at taxpayer expense.
For more information, see the 14th Amendment and Anchor Babies website.
One who dislikes and discriminates against individual immigrants.
Open borders proponents often label those who favor reducing immigration numbers as "anti-immigrant". Their intent is to discredit immigration reductionists by making false associations with racism, nativism, and xenophobia. The correct term is immigration reductionist. The truth is that nearly all immigration reductionists favor immigrants and immigration, but at a drastically reduced level.
Supporting replacement-level immigration does not mean that one hates immigrants, any more than supporting replacement-level levels of births means that one hates babies.
Balkanization is the separation of a country or region into smaller units, often hostile to each other, sometimes involving the forcible expulsion of entire populations from their homelands by stronger powers. High levels of immigration without assimilation may lead to balkanization.
The maximum population of a given species that can be supported indefinitely in a defined habitat without permanently impairing the productivity and functioning of that habitat.
Humanity has been able temporarily to avoid carrying capacity issues through the use technology, preemption of supporting ecosystems normally used to sustain other species, and by transporting and importing resources. Thus, a more appropriate definition of carrying capacity with regard to humanity is the maximum "load" that can safely be imposed on an environment by humanity without permanently impairing the productivity and functioning of that environment. Shrinking carrying capacity may soon become the single most important issue facing humanity.
One who wants to preserve our sustaining natural resources for the benefit of future generations and for the living organisms who exist in our natural environment. By definition, conservationism is conservative, but not all conservatives are conservationists.
The belief that natural resources are essentially of limitless supply and that technology will find solutions to environmental, overpopulation, energy, and resource depletion problems.
Diversity is defined as noticeable heterogeneity, and often is used in a social context to mean noticeable presence of multiple races and cultures, without significant assimilation. Diversity is frequently promoted as the desirable condition for American society by those who favor open borders and unlimited immigration.
One who promotes cultural and racial diversity at the expense of an indigenous culture and society, without regard for ecological and social consequences.
The effective land area and corresponding resources required by an individual, city, or nation in order to supply resources and dispose of wastes. It is a measurement of capital stocks, physical flows, and corresponding ecosystem areas required to support a given human population and economy.
For more information, see EcoFuture environmental information.
Fertility is the actual reproductive performance of an individual, a couple, a group, or a population. It is typically used in reference to the average number of live births per woman. Native-born Americans voluntarily achieved replacement-level fertility (2.1 children per woman) in 1972. See EcoFuture Population Terms and Definitions.
An artificial ethnicity contrived in 1976, originally meaning "Americans of Spanish origin or descent", but subsequently changed to mean "A person of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race".
In the 1930s, "Hispanics," led by LULAC, opposed identifying Mexicans as "non-white." After affirmative action programs were implemented for Blacks in the 1970s, "Hispanics," dominated by LULAC and La Raza (The Race), changed their racial identity from "white" to "non-white" in order to be eligible for affirmative action programs.
The "Hispanic" category was created on June 16, 1976 by Public Law 94-311, "Economic and Social Statistics for Americans of Spanish Origin." The law contained two significant components: 1) the subject: "Americans of Spanish origin or descent" and 2) the legal status: "American citizens." Both of these qualifiers were soon dropped in an effort to magnify political influence by maximizing numeric size.
In 1977, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) adopted the title of "Hispanic". Subsequently, "Hispanic" has come to be de defined as "A person of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race."
According to Mark Lopez of the Pew Hispanic Center:
[A]bout two-thirds of Hispanic-Americans identify themselves not as belonging to the general Latino culture, but to their specific country of origin or their parents' homeland.
"The notion of a pan-ethnic identity is actually an American concept," said Lopez, an American citizen whose grandparents emigrated from Mexico. "If I go to El Salvador and I say I'm Hispanic, they're going to think I'm from Spain, or they're not going to know what that means. They don't see a pan-ethnic identity. They see themselves as Salvadoran."
See:
Funding Hate - Foundations and the Radical Hispanic Lobby, Part I, The Social Contract, Fall, 2000.
Hispanics Extend Reach Beyond Enclaves, Wall Street Journal, March 19, 2003.
The Origin of the Term ‘Hispanic’, Hartford Guardian, July 27, 2009.
Illegal Alien Propaganda: A Critical Lesson in Terminology and Tactics, Accuracy in Media, April 12, 2013.
An illegal alien is "a foreigner who has entered or resides in a country unlawfully or without the country's authorization." An illegal alien is an alien - that is, a foreign national - who has illegally entered the United States, or who enters legally and then deliberately overstays their visa. An illegal alien is a criminal subject to as much as six months in jail for first offense and subject to federal felony charges for subsequent entries after initial deportation.
Colorado defines an illegal alien as "anyone who has entered the United States illegally and is deportable, or anyone who has 'overstayed a visa' or otherwise violated the terms of his or her legal admission into the United States. Sometimes known as an 'illegal immigrant.'" (From Implementation of Senate Bill 06-090 Performance Audit, Colorado State Auditor, Department of Public Safety, Department of Local Affairs, May 2009.)
The term "illegal alien" is purposefully and appropriately used in US Government documents, such as:
"Immigration Investigations, Enforcement, Detention and Removal: For information about immigration investigations, enforcement, detention or removal of aliens from the U.S., or to report suspected illegal aliens or other illegal immigration activity, please visit the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement website at www.ice.gov." and
"An illegal alien who entered the United States without inspection, for example, would be strictly defined as an immigrant under the INA but is not a permanent resident alien." and
"Certain illegal aliens who were eligible to apply for temporary resident status under the legalization provision of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986."
See:
Dictionary - illegal alien.
Implementation of Senate Bill 06-090 Performance Audit, Colorado State Auditor, Department of Public Safety, Department of Local Affairs, May 2009.
USCIS Service and Office Locator, U.S. Citizenship and Naturalization Services, as of April 3, 2013.
Permanent Resident Alien, U.S. Citizenship and Naturalization Services, as of April 3, 2013.
Legalized Aliens, U.S. Citizenship and Naturalization Services, as of April 3, 2013.
An immigrant is "a person who comes to a country to take up permanent residence". An immigrant is an invited guest - a person who comes to a country where they are not a citizen in order to settle there. The term "immigrant" implies permanent, legal, residency. (Although because of amnesties and status adjustments, about 25% of currently legal immigrants first came to the U.S. illegally).
The term immigration reform originated in the mid 1990s to mean true reform of incongruous United States immigration policy which blatantly ignored laws regarding interior immigration enforcement and US border security. Over time, open borders radical groups sought to preempt the term "Immigration Reform" to codify their agenda to open American Borders to illegal aliens and to legalize foreign job-seekers who were successful in sneaking into America and avoiding capture at our border. To be clear, one might refer to patriotic immigration reform, as opposed to the open borders kind, which amounts to treason.
An immigration reductionist is one who favors a return to sustainable immigration numbers. Often those favoring immigration reduction are called racist or anti-immigrant, but the truth is that nearly all immigration reductionists favor immigrants and immigration, but at a drastically reduced level.
Immigrants rights advocates promote the rights of legal immigrants - this is a productive and valuable effort. Often open borders advocates and organizations are referred to as "immigrant rights" advocates and organizations. This is a misnomer, designed to be deliberately misleading. Supporting illegal immigration and open borders under this umbrella is by no means supporting immigrant rights; it is supporting the nonexistent rights of illegal aliens to enter our country. The most salient right of illegal aliens who escaped apprehension at our border is to be treated humanely as they are returned to their home countries to reunite with their families.
The concern about the well-being of future generations. This concern is often discounted in light of short-term issues. See the article Intergenerational Justice.
Nativism is the policy of favoring native inhabitants over immigrants. Establishing a goal of stabilizing U.S. population requires addressing both fertility and immigration numbers; however this is not a nativist agenda. Calling an immigration reductionist a nativist is an ad hominem attack.
One who supports the anti-American agenda of illegal immigration and open borders, notwithstanding the express intent of the laws of the land. Typically this is coincident with an anti-nationalist perspective.
Political correctness is a belief that language and practices that could offend a minority group should be eliminated. Taken to extremes, political correctness becomes a filter that prevents a society from understanding the true nature of issues and events. For example, immigration-driven population growth is often not discussed because of the fear of racist allegations.
Population momentum is the tendency for population growth to continue beyond the time that replacement-level fertility has been achieved because of the relatively high concentration of people in the childbearing years. It takes a period of time equal to the average life expectancy (approximately three generations or 73 years in the U.S.) for a reduction in fertility to be manifested as a change in actual population numbers. See additional information on fertility and population momentum. Also see this short discussion of population momentum, and Population Terms and Definitions.
Racism is the prejudice that members of one race are intrinsically superior to members of other races. Some racists indeed might want to eliminate immigration of certain races. However, immigration reductionists are not inherently racist, and the goal of stabilizing U.S. population is not predicated upon a racist agenda. Calling an immigration reductionist a racist is an ad hominem attack.
Reverse racism is the predisposition and bias against native-born Americans, and those of historical European descent and traditional American culture.
Preserving natural ecosystems and keeping resources intact for future generations - of humans and all species.
The terms "undocumented worker", "undocumented immigrant", "unlawful immigrant", "undocumented alien", "undocumented student", "undocumented migrant", "unauthorized immigrant", and "illegal immigrant" are often used to describe those who have broken the law of our land to enter and work in our country illegally. These are all misleading terms, deliberately used to "soften" the issue of illegal entry into the United States.
The term "undocumented" implies that foreign nationals have the unconditional right to violate America's borders and immigration laws, and that the worst offense they may have committed was forgetting to complete some paperwork. The reality of the situation is the illegal aliens have all kinds of Social Security cards and other documents - it's just that those documents are forged or stolen.
An "immigrant" is an invited guest - a person who comes to a country where they are not a citizen in order to settle there. The term "immigrant" implies permanent, legal, residency. (Although because of amnesties and status adjustments, about 25% of currently legal immigrants first came here illegally).
The accurate description of a foreign national illegally residing in America is "illegal alien". An illegal alien is a criminal subject to as much as six months in jail for first offense and subject to federal felony charges for subsequent entries after deportation.
For more information, see:
Immigration and the Law.
Glossary of Terms, US Citizenship and Naturalization Services (PDF).
Glossary of Terms, US Citizenship and Naturalization Services (web page).
‘ILLEGAL ALIEN:’ Tell it like it is
Illegal Alien - The Proper Terminology
Associated Press adopts Orwellian doublespeak - drops 'illegal immigrant'.
Illegal Alien Propaganda: A Critical Lesson in Terminology and Tactics.
U.S. Appeals Court consistently uses the correct terminology 'illegal alien'.
It’s Official–A Federal Appeals Court Coined The Term “Illegal Alien” In 1950.
Illegal alien, illegal alien, illegal alien – save this for when the illegal alien lobby tells you there is no such legal term as “illegal alien”.
Xenophobia is an irrational fear of foreigners or strangers. Americans have every right to establish a population and immigration policy for their own country, based upon the goal of population stabilization and a rational fear of unending population growth. This has nothing to do with fear of other people. Calling an immigration reductionist a xenophobe is an ad hominem attack.
Zero population growth means that a population is in equilibrium, with a growth rate of zero, and is achieved when births plus immigration equal deaths plus emigration. See EcoFuture Population Terms and Definitions.