Detroit mayor gets blowback from migrant groups for using the ‘i-word’ for illegal immigrants
Immigrant advocacy groups condemned Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan Wednesday for calling illegal immigrants “illegal,” or what they called “the i–word.”
Liberal activist groups and public figures have called for illegal immigrants to not be described as such, instead wanting them to be referred to as “undocumented” or “unauthorized” immigrants.
As some localities plan to resist the Trump administration’s efforts to remove criminal illegal immigrants, Duggan has said that Detroit is not a sanctuary city and would not shield those who are here illegally.
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Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan spoke at the 2024 Democratic National Convention. (PBS Newshour YouTube channel)
“ICE has a list of who they’re looking for who are illegal immigrants, who have committed crimes,” Duggan, a former Democrat turned Independent, said last week. “And when one of the people we’ve arrested comes up, they will contact us. And if we have them in custody at the Detroit detention center, we will turn them over to ICE.”
According to The Detroit News, nine Michigan organizations that work with immigrants denounced the mayor for “describing undocumented immigrants as ‘illegal.’”
“The Mayor’s use of the I-word is inappropriate, dehumanizing, and an insult to Detroit’s longstanding immigrant communities,” the organizations wrote in a press release viewed by the local news outlet.
Duggan reportedly shrugged off the criticism as mere “political correctness” in an email, according to the Detroit News.
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Migrants from a caravan in Tapachula, Mexico, march toward the U.S. border on Jan. 20, 2025. (Isaac Guzman/AFP via Getty Images)
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“[W]hen Detroit police make a criminal arrest and DPD gets federal notification that the person in custody is in the country illegally, we should not and do not shield you from federal enforcement,” he said.
“Groups who oppose this position are criticizing me today over the political correctness of my statements, but I do not apologize for providing a clear explanation of Detroit’s position. It is a position we have followed consistently through the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations,” Duggan added.
