There has been a lot of talk and news coverage about New Jersey spending “$1.6 million to help send 513 undocumented immigrants to college during the fall 2018 semester.” According to NJ.com:

The college financial aid was handed out for the first time thanks to a new law signed by Gov. Phil Murphy that offers taxpayer-funded grants and scholarships to New Jersey "Dreamers" who are living in the country illegally.

Now, I could go on and on about how “Dreamers” are being rewarded for an illegal act performed by their parents, but why bother.

The real question is, how did we get here? And, the answer is, Republicans don’t know how to fight.

Nearly every story I’ve read on this issue uses the phrase “undocumented immigrants” or a couple of times I’ve seen “undocumented students.”

“Undocumented immigrant” is too nice a term, and Republicans just let it happen. The “Drop the I-Word “ campaign was launched in 2010 to advocate for the use of terms such as “undocumented immigrants” or “unauthorized immigrants” when referring to foreign nationals living in the United States illegally. Rather than pushback Republicans just let the liberals keep repeating the phrase “undocumented immigrant” until the Associated Press dropped “illegal immigrant” from its stylebook in 2013.

Rather than rolling over and playing dead Republicans should have just kept using the phrase “illegal alien.” And, every single time the liberal left pushed back Republicans could have simply reminded them “illegal alien” is a term used in many U.S. statutes, 2 USC 658, "8 USC 1252c, 8 USC 1330, 8 USC 1356, 8 USC 1365, and I could go on, but you get the idea.

And, let’s not forget that as recently as last summer the Justice Department “instructed US attorneys offices not to use the term "undocumented" immigrants and instead refer to someone illegally in the US as ‘an illegal alien.’” According to a CNN report:

The Justice Department has instructed US attorneys offices not to use the term "undocumented" immigrants and instead refer to someone illegally in the US as "an illegal alien," according to a copy of an agency-wide email obtained by CNN.

According to the email, the Justice Department uses terms in the US Code to describe an individual who is illegally in the US, and thus refers to them as "an illegal alien."

"The word 'undocumented' is not based in US code and should not be used to describe someone's illegal presence in the country," the email states.

Don’t be afraid to say “illegal alien.” It’s a term used in U.S. statutes, in other words, a term used in the law. “Undocumented” just sounds too nice, it paints an entirely different picture, it makes folks think the illegal alien one is referring to did nothing wrong, when they in fact did do something wrong.

Using the kind phrase “undocumented” and allowing others to use it is simply giving up before the argument even begins and gives the liberals running our state the opportunity to give away over $1 million to folks in the country illegally rather than help actual U.S. citizens.

Bottom line: Republicans better start fighting harder or we can all get prepared to give away millions more of our hard earned tax dollars.