By David Harsanyi
Monday, April
19, 2021
According to the Washington Post:
ICE, CBP
to stop using ‘illegal alien’ and ‘assimilation’ under new Biden administration
order
The Left’s long-time aversion to the
innocuous, accurate, legal term “illegal alien” — “alien” meaning belonging to
a foreign nation and “illegal” meaning contrary to or forbidden by law — is
part of a transparent effort to destigmatize a criminal act. But transforming
the notion of “assimilation” into something undesirable is a dangerous attack
on one of the most vital ingredients of American success.
Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement Tae Johnson, who, incidentally, has a crisis at the border
on his hands, writes that “ICE will ensure agency communications use the
preferred terminology and inclusive language.”
Europeans are learning
the hard way what happens when you do not have
any genuine expectations of assimilation. American cultural and political life
has, for the most part, offered the space to honor the past, while making
demands in the present. Despite sloganeering about “diversity,” it is not alone
what makes us stronger — though it is the flavor that enhances our personal and
cultural lives. It is the ability to convince disparate people and cultures to
adopt American norms and surrender many of their own. It could not happen
without a unifying ideology, a shared understanding of civic life, a shared
language, a hierarchy of societal values, respect for law and order and
liberalism, and acceptance of a meritocratic society and social contracts. All
these foundational ideals are being corroded right now.
To integrate is to combine. To assimilate
is to absorb. And if there were no difference between the meanings of those
words, the Biden administration would not be sending out memos about which one
to use.
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