Linguistic Progress At The Ninth Circuit!
11/02/2010
A+
|
a-
Print Friendly and PDF
The parts of Arizona's new anti-illegal-immigration law (SB1070) that were enjoined at the federal district court level in July had their second day in court Monday, this time before a three-judge panel of the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, in San Francisco.

The proceedings are described in an Associated Press article (Appeals court hints at tossing part of Arizona law, by Paul Elias, November 1, 2010). Here's a passage from the piece that attracted my attention:

Among the provisions at issue is the requirement that police – when enforcing other laws – must question the immigration status of people they have reason to suspect are in the country illegally.

"It's how the state wants to use its people," said Judge Carlos Bea, appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush. "The state can turn over an illegal to federal officials."

Fancy that: An august federal circuit judge used the slang "an illegal" to mean "an illegal alien"! This should already have the National Association of Hispanic Journalists [NAHJ] grinding their teeth down to nubs.

Imagine the further consequences — self-immolation would be nice — when the grievance chroniclers at the NAHJ discover that Judge Bea is, himself, Hispanic! (According to his Wikipedia entry, Bea was born in Spain [1934], grew up mostly in Cuba, then moved to the U.S. in 1959. [However, in some classifications, natives of Spain aren't considered Hispanic. Go figure.])

Print Friendly and PDF