Language Tactics of Mass Immigration Peddlers: Conceal and Confuse

George Carlin once observed, “By and large, language is a tool for hiding the truth.” From his perch in the great Comedy Club of the Hereafter, he’s probably gazing down giving us that wry head cock and raised eyebrow right now. After all, leftist politicians and mass immigration advocates have ratcheted up their word salads and concocted absurdly deceitful titles for sanctuary bills as they continue to desperately hawk their anti-borders agenda.

Case in point is a linguistically tortured, ridiculously elongated bill put forth recently by Democrats in the Maine Legislature entitled An Act to Require Municipal and County Jails to be Available at All Times for the Detention of Persons Arrested on Criminal Charges by Maine Law Enforcement Officers (any acronym of this is hopelessly unintelligible). While the bill title earnestly suggests public safety would be enhanced, it’s quite the opposite: The bill prohibits local jails from housing anyone arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which means illegal aliens may get released back into the local community because federal officials won’t have access to local holding facilities.

This gobbledygook is nothing new in the blue state of Maine. In 2024, the Democrat-controlled House and Senate passed LD 197, deceptively and ludicrously titling it An Act to Protect Workers in This State by Clarifying the Relationship of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies with Federal Immigration Authorities. Despite its high-minded promise of securing the interests of hard-working Mainers, in reality the only workers being protected are illegal aliens. The purpose of the bill is to restrict local officials from inquiring about a person’s immigration status, ban local law enforcement from honoring ICE detainers, ban locales from participating in ICE’s 287(g) program, and otherwise prohibit local officials from assisting immigration authorities.

And in August of 2023, Maine Governor Janet Mills signed an executive order to create a state Office of New Americans to attract an additional 15,000 “New Mainers” annually over five years. On the surface this sounded positive for an impoverished state that could benefit from increased flows of wealthy retirees, skilled workers, and industrious entrepreneurs. Except, of course, it had nothing to do with that. “New Mainers” is the governor’s euphemistic umbrella term for asylum seekers, refugees, and illegal aliens. The new organization’s purpose is to lobby on their behalf for more federal benefits.

So much for truth-in-labeling. The Pine Tree State is simply following what so many others have done, and gotten away with.

Massachusetts recently passed the Work and Family Mobility Act, a title packed with all the cherished American ideals just short of mom and apple pie. In actual fact, the bill required the issuance of driver’s licenses to all regardless of immigration status. Likewise, in 2024 Michigan legislators tried to pass their Drive SAFE (Safety, Access, Freedom, and Economy) Bill. Here again, despite the impulse to stand and salute at the mere mention of the seemingly noble legislation, you should sit right back down; the bill was designed solely to give driver’s licenses to illegal aliens.

Similarly, an honorable mention for duplicity must go to a 2023 U.S. House of Representatives bill known as The Dignity for Immigrants while Guarding our Nation to Ignite and Deliver the American Dream Act. Despite its soaring rhetoric, the bill was nothing other than a massive amnesty scheme offering sugar-coated promises of enforcement.

The loftier the title, the more likely you’re being lied to.

Which finally brings us to a new bill with interesting wordplay. New Jersey Democratic lawmakers have proposed the Fight Unlawful Conduct and Keep Individuals and Communities Empowered Act. Although its intent is thinly veiled by the title, the bill is designed to make it easier for residents to sue federal immigration officials. That said, the exceptionally unique — and deliberate — feature of this bill is its hidden and crude message: Its acronym is F*CKICE.

Sure, it’s sophomoric, offensive, and deceptive, but it illustrates the sheer desperation of today’s Left. After all, Americans have concluded mass immigration offers nothing for them. Moreover, they’re tired of hearing duplicitous clichés and linguistic layers of varnish pushing what, time and again, amount to nothing but efforts to protect and reward illegal immigration.

George Carlin was right that “language is a tool for hiding the truth,” but with one big exception — only for the gullible, and Americans no longer are. In 2024, 77 million voters chose Donald Trump as the 47th president of the United States, largely based on his promise to enforce our nation’s immigration laws and to repudiate the Left’s habitual deceit on immigration policy.

The mass-migration lobby will continue to underestimate the public’s intelligence while failing to understand that when it comes to immigration, there are really only four words Americans want to hear, and believe:

Enforce America’s existing laws.  

Dale L. Wilcox is executive director and general counsel of the Federation for American Immigration Reform in Washington, D.C.