I'm troubled by a couple of things here. First, this creates another path whereby illegal alien women can fake abuse and steal a share of America they didn't earn. Secondly, I’m trying to eliminate some of the confusion regarding illegal aliens and the use of three terms: Hispanic, Latino and immigrant.

Hispanic

As a 40-year resident of North Texas, I’ve become accustomed to the following definition of the term “Hispanic.” It’s an American, not English, word derived from the Spanish word Hispanohablantes, which means "Spanish speaker." It encompasses Spain, Puerto Rico and The Philippines, et al. But Spanish is not spoken in about half of South America where Portuguese, French, Dutch, Guarani and English also are official languages. And many Caribbean nations have chosen official languages other than Spanish. The point is the term “Hispanic” is neither race nor ethnic group.

Latino

Similarly, the term Latino also is an American word originating around 1945 and derived from Latinoamericano or Latin-American. It carries a powerful 60-year old connotation of citizenship. In America, the terms Black, Amerind and several others, clearly imply American citizenship. I’d opine the term Latino fits squarely into this group and denotes American citizenship. Certainly it means neither Hispanic nor immigrant. This definition also works for the many children born to second- and third-generation Latinos who cannot read or write Spanish. Due to confusion regarding the term Hispanic, our nation struggles to find a term the activists would have us use to describe these children. It’s not a major problem though, because most of these folks prefer the simpler term “citizen” or American. If a moniker is needed, Latino is good but to reduce confusion, keep in mind it also means citizen.

Immigrant

Finally, the term “immigrant” refers to people who have come to America through the use of a process established by law. Thus, the term “illegal immigrant” is oxymoronic and the term “legal immigrant” is redundant. Often hidden behind the term “immigrant,” is an illegal alien.

The Debate

Open-borders activists, liberals, Mexicans, Democrats, La Raza, LULAC, MALDEF, ACLU, and many others intentionally misuse these terms because it commingles 20 million outlaws with three distinct and well-defined groups. Mixing illegal aliens with sovereign Hispanic nations, Latino citizens and immigrants, creates a confusing, amorphous blob of humanity that defies description. Illegal aliens survive in this confusion in the same way that birds survive in flocks and fish survive in schools. The problem is most illegal aliens are not Spanish, Puerto Rican or Filipino. And they’re neither citizens nor immigrants. They’re simply what their national labels say they are. Bluntly, they’re Mexican, Iraqi, Guatemalan, Chinese, Salvadoran, et al. But hiding in this amorphy makes it difficult for law-abiding Americans to focus on them. Certainly the moms & pops who work for a living have little time to deal with such fine details.

Pro-illegal-alien activists and racists really hate this clarification because it removes much of their camouflage and perhaps, deep down, they might consider the term “Mexican” or “Guatemalan” too coarse for polite conversation. They’ve already written volumes objecting to the terms “illegal” and “alien.” It’s a dilemma for them because I doubt they’d openly object to the terms Mexican or Guatemalan even though they cannot quite bring themselves to use the terms.

I hope media leaders like yourself will help in this effort by including this information wherever you deem appropriate and by using the terms correctly.