Fox’s Neil Cavuto ridiculed a plan to get rid of the term “illegal alien” as some kind of political correctness run amok. But he also seemed to think that people in this country illegally deserved the contempt.  

brian.comCavuto opened with this introduction:

NEIL CAVUTO: All right, if you’re all in agreement now with me saying I don’t like the word “fat” get rid of it—because I’m very sensitive. Now, we have another thing with all these illegal aliens but there’s a congressman out there, and he’s a wonderful human being, but do not get me wrong, Joaquin Castro [from] the state of Texas, he’s a rising star, wants to get rid of the whole “alien” thing, too. He wants to replace the name “alien” with “foreign national,” “illegal alien” with “undocumented foreign national.” He’s even got a measure to make it happen. The “Correcting Hurtful and Alienating Names in Government Expression.” 

Guest Nomiki Konst (one of our favorites) did a great job arguing the other side. She said the term “alien” “offends” and is “dehumanizing.”

But Cavuto replied, “You know what’s dehumanizing? …All these people being here illegally.”

This was made more explicit in the debate:

KONST: But they’re not all illegal. A lot of these people are just foreigners that we call aliens...

CAVUTO: ...An illegal alien is an undocumented foreign national. They’re illegal right?...

KONST: But they’re still humans. …One third of our workforce are foreigners. One third of the entrepreneurs in our country are documented and undocumented foreigners. ...Paying taxes into our system.

CAVUTO: ...We’re getting all worked up about not offending them when I’m offended by all the money we are spending not to offend them. 

KONST: They’re contributing to our economy.

CAVUTO: But you don’t know that.

KONST:  Yes they are. They’re part of our community.

CAVUTO: Alright, so you’re going to get all hot and bothered over the term alien and not so much over the fact that we have an immigration and illegal immigration problem that is bursting out of control.

In 2013, the Center for American Progress produced a lengthy explanation as to how immigrants are “makers” and not “takers”:

Mainstream economists have thoroughly debunked this general stereotype of immigrants as takers, finding that immigrants are a net positive for the economy and pay more into the system than they take out. In fact, immigrants’ contributions have also played a key role in prolonging the solvency of the Social Security Trust Fund. And the truth is that the cost-benefit analyses that immigration restrictionists have used to make their wild cost projections simply are not well-rounded or accurate.

Watch Konst make a lot of these points below, from the October 23 Your World, but don’t expect any Fox News segment highlighting these facts any time soon.