Emily Bazar (ebazar@usatoday.com), specifically, has also forced undocumented students to reveal their true identity to make a point in her article. For this particular article, Ms. Bazar spoke to our Communications Director and when he told her that she could not use his last name, Bazar retaliated by saying that USA Today had "national standards" and policies to be adhered to. I wonder if these standards came from Numbers USA, funded by the known racist John Tanton or FAIR, who is quoted in the article saying the same things that have been debunked here.
Later, since I am out and proud as an undocumented youth who was wronged by the system, I reluctantly spent time giving Ms. Bazar details about deportation cases that she uses in her article without credit to me. I have spoken to dozens of immigration reporters and it doesn’t get more incompetent than what I experienced on the call.
But more specifically, I wasn't even talking about the term "illegal immigrant" but "illegal students." What is "illegal" exactly about being a student in this case? Is a drunk 19 year old college student an "illegal student" as well? Is it supposed to describe anyone who has ever done something illegal and also gone to school?
I just received the following in an email: "I’m watching this documentary about Food and animal treatment and this chicken farmer in the middle of nowhere can say UNDOCUMENTED but a reporter from a "newspaper" cant?! SHAME!"
DO NOT grant Emily Bazar or USA Today any interviews till they clean up this mess and apologize.
The proper words are undocumented and unauthorized in reference to immigrants. Even the Supreme Court gets it nowadays due to the influence of Judge Sotomayor and calls us "undocumented immigrants."
Sign the petition to tell Emily Bazar and USA Today media relations that no student and no human being can be illegal.
In the meantime, I am still clueless about what an "illegal student" is. Maybe I need to go back to school for this one.
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