ALIPAC drops illegal immigrants for ‘illegal invaders’ after AP move
Thousands of demonstrators march through downtown to City Hall in one of several May Day marches and rallies in southern California and in at least 75 cities nationwide to press for immigrant and labor rights on May 1, 2007 in Los Angeles, California.
Calling it a response to a “totalitarian” move from the Associated Press, Americans for Legal Immigration (ALIPAC) said today it’s also changing its style in favor of “illegal invaders” over “illegal immigrants.”
The AP said on Tuesday that it’s dropping illegal immigrants from the AP Styleguide, a reference manual for American journalists.
ALIPAC responded by suggesting the “Big Brother move by AP is political correctness on steroids.”
“What class of criminals will the Associated Press and Congress make disappear next with the stroke of a pen?,” ALIPAC president William Gheen said online. “Perhaps they will make all of the rapists, shop lifters, drug dealers, tax cheats, prostitutes and pimps disappear too?”
More from GlobalPost: Associated Press drops ‘illegal immigrants’ from style guide
On Tuesday, AP’s executive editor Kathleen Carroll said the news service would encourage all journalists to drop the term illegal immigrants.
Carroll said while actions might be illegal, people are not.
“It’s the most run-amok PC thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Gheen told the Los Angeles Times in an interview.
ALIPAC isn’t any stranger to controversy surrounding the topic.
The immigration-rights group Imagine 2050 chastised Gheen last week for predicting the demise of the “white European descendent male Christian demographic” in the US.
Imagine 2050 said ALIPAC removed the offending blog post, which Imagine 2050 reposted on its website.
Gheen contacted GlobalPost on Wednesday and said that the ALIPAC post had not been intentionally removed but accidentally lost after a "severe website malfunction," and directed an editor to the reblogged post on the ALIPAC website.
He also disputed the characterization of his comments.
"My mention of 'white European descendent male Christian demographic' does not predict demise, but laments the targeting of this demographic by groups like Imagine 2050 and others. I would hope that most Americans would stand with me in preventing the targeting or abuse of any demographic in America including whites, males, and Christians," Gheen wrote in an email.
This story has been edited from its original version.