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Senate to Vote on Immigration Reform Bill

The Senate is expected to pass the immigration reform bill today. There will be a vote at 4:00 p.m.

In addition to providing a 13-year pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, the bipartisan bill would double to 40,000 the number of federal agents on the U.S.-Mexican border and help provide American businesses with needed low- and high-skilled workers.

(Added: the use of the word "illegal" to describe immigrants is not allowed here, it was a quote in a Reuters news article. (another version here.) I just noticed it and struck the word. Newer Reuters articles aren't using the word.

The bill will then move to the House. Republicans in the House want their own bill. They oppose the path to citizenship in the Senate version.

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    I'm glad that you're discouraging the use .. (5.00 / 2) (#1)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Thu Jun 27, 2013 at 06:38:25 PM EST
    ... of the word "illegal" in relation to undocumented immigrants. That term's always rubbed me the wrong way, not unlike using "illegitimate" to describe the birth of a child out of wedlock.

    My in-laws were crossed over the Rio Grande to settle in Corpus Christi in 1958, and they and their two eldest children were undocumented for well over two decades. They're all U.S. citizens now, thanks to the last round of comprehensive immigration reform in the 1980s. They eventually had ten children, and five of them served with distinction in the U.S. military. So when I hear the term "illegal," it's rather personal.

    Aloha.

    The AP has also discouraged such use (none / 0) (#2)
    by christinep on Fri Jun 28, 2013 at 12:22:11 PM EST
    This spring, the AP style-book clearly stated that appropriate usage --- for a number of reasons not the least of which would be inaccuracy in the presumptive use of "illegal" in a number of unknown situations--would be words such as "undocumented," etc.  Since then, a number of papers have changed the earlier offensive usage to the AP stylebook approach.  Thankfully.

    Parent