Immigrant Advocacy Groups Criticize Detroit Mayor for Use of 'Illegal' Term
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan faces backlash from immigrant advocacy groups for using the term "illegal" to describe undocumented immigrants, as calls for more humane terminology grow.
MSNBC anchor Alex Witt corrected her correspondent Priya Sridhar live on the air during a segment Sunday after Sridhar used the term "illegal aliens."
Immigrant advocacy groups condemned Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan Wednesday for calling illegal immigrants "illegal," or what they called "the i-word."
Liberal activist groups and public figures have called for illegal immigrants to not be described as such, instead preferring the terms "undocumented" or "unauthorized" immigrants.
As some localities plan to resist the Trump administration's efforts to remove criminal illegal immigrants, Duggan has stated that Detroit is not a sanctuary city and would not shield those who are in the country illegally.
"ICE has a list of who they're looking for who are illegal immigrants, who have committed crimes," Duggan, a former Democrat turned Independent, said last week. "And when one of the people we've arrested comes up, they will contact us. And if we have them in custody at the Detroit detention center, we will turn them over to ICE."
According to The Detroit News, nine Michigan organizations that work with immigrants denounced the mayor for "describing undocumented immigrants as 'illegal.'
"The Mayor's use of the I-word is inappropriate, dehumanizing, and an insult to Detroit's longstanding immigrant communities," the organizations wrote in a press release viewed by the local news outlet.
Duggan reportedly shrugged off the criticism as mere "political correctness" in an email, according to the Detroit News.
"[W]hen Detroit police make a criminal arrest and DPD gets federal notification that the person in custody is in the country illegally, we should not and do not shield you from federal enforcement," he said.
"Groups who oppose this position are criticizing me today over the political correctness of my statements, but I do not apologize for providing a clear explanation of Detroit's position. It is a position we have followed consistently through the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations," Duggan added.
