Why 'illegal alien' is the only term that truly fits

I read Joy Lomenick's letter May 9 in your online edition and agree wholly with her opinion. I'd add these paragraphs.

I'm trying to eliminate some of the confusion regarding illegal aliens and the use of two terms.

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, the Philippines and much of Latin America, along with many other nations and groups. It is neither a race nor ethnic group.

Similarly, the term "Latino" also is an American word that originated around 1945 and is derived from "Latinoamericano" or "Latin-American." It carries a powerful 60-year-old connotation of citizenship.

Openborders 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 welldefined 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 aren't 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, Guatemalan, Venezuelan, et al. But hiding in this amorphy makes it difficult for law-abiding Americans to focus on them. Certainly the moms and 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" and "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.

Tom Poole

Prosper, Texas