On Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “All In with Chris Hayes,” guest host Joy Reid scolded Trump surrogate and member of Trump’s National Hispanic Advisory Council Steve Cortes for using the term “illegals” and asked him, “You are Hispanic, Steve. Are you comfortable with that term, ‘illegals?’ That is a pejorative to a lot of people.”
After Cortes said, “there can be no citizenship for illegals.” Reid stated, “You are Hispanic, Steve. Are you comfortable with that term, ‘illegals?’ That is a pejorative to a lot of people. Why do you use that term?”
Cortes responded that “words matter.” He continued, “[I]f you do something that is against the law, it’s illegal. If you go into a store and you shoplift, you’re not an undocumented holder of a good, you’re a thief. If you come to the United States against the immigration laws of the United States, you’re not undocumented, you’re illegal.”
Reid asked, “First of all, do you consider a child who was brought into this country, the people who are eligible for DACA, who were children when they came here, you would label that person essentially the equivalent of a shoplifter or a thief?”
Cortes answered, “No, because they had no choice in the matter.” He later added that he wouldn’t use the term “illegal” for someone who entered the US illegally as a child “because they didn’t have a choice. A shoplifter has a choice. An illegal alien has a choice. A child did not have a choice.”
Reid then said, “That’s fascinating that you, as a person of color, would use that term.”
After Cortes used the term again, Reid cut in to ask that he not use the term. Cortes responded that he wouldn’t, “because the English language matters.”
After some crosstalk about the term, Reid began her next question, “I’m going to see if you can do it without upsetting and disturbing and offending lots of people who are listening.”
(h/t Real Clear Politics)
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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