News: 'Illegal Aliens' Issue in Library of Congress
Washington, DC,
June 10, 2016
ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION On Thursday, we told you that Republican leaders in the U.S. House had thwarted a Democratic attempt to load up a spending bill shepherded by Tom Graves, R-Ranger, with some rather controversial amendments. But last night, as the House debated the $3.5 billion bill, which deals primarily with congressional spending, Democrats continued to slam Graves and his GOP colleagues for including language in a sidecar to the bill that would essentially compel the Library of Congress to continue using the term “illegal alien,” among other terms, to describe undocumented immigrants. Florida Democrat Debbie Wasserman Schultz compared the term to the word “Negro.” “We evolve in this country and it is understandable that someone who was not a member of a group of immigrants wouldn’t understand that that term could be pejorative,” Schultz told Graves on the House floor. “We should evolve as a society.” Graves shot back, saying that the language in question would keep the Library of Congress’ system consistent with terminology used in Supreme Court decisions and federal laws for decades. “We’re actually helping the library here. We’re not telling them what words to use. We’re just saying ‘hey, be consistent with U.S. law,'” Graves said. “That keeps it pretty simple, I believe.” |
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