By PoliZette Staff | September 28, 2019

There’s a lot of awful and disturbing things people can and do say on the streets of New York City every single day — and nobody bats an eyelash.

But now, there’s a tough, new, eyebrow-raising law on the books.

And it makes calling someone an “illegal alien” in a “hateful” way — well, illegal.

Insist on saying it anyway because you believe in free speech?

You could be charged a fine as high as $250,000.

The city, run by Mayor Bill de Blasio, who recently dropped out of the 2020 Democrat presidential primary race, passed a new law this week that says you may not “threaten someone” with a call to immigration authorities, even if they are here unlawfully — or refer to them as an “illegal alien” if the use of that term is motivated by hate.

City Hall released a 29-page outline of the new directive, explaining that “alien”  is a term that may dehumanize “immigrants” — and that the use of “certain language, including ‘illegal alien’ and ‘illegals,’ with the intent to demean, humiliate, or offend a person or persons, constitutes discrimination,” as The New York Post explained. 

Violations of this new law are punishable by fines of up to $250,000 per offense — and all are outlined in a new directive released by City Hall’s Commission on Human Rights.

“‘Alien’ — used in many laws to refer to a ‘noncitizen’ person — is a term that may carry negative connotations and dehumanize immigrants, marking them as ‘other,’” reads one part of the memo.

“The use of certain language, including ‘illegal alien’ and ‘illegals,’ with the intent to demean, humiliate, or offend a person or persons constitutes discrimination.”

Related: This Elected Lawmaker Is Trying to Help Illegal Aliens Avoid Arrest in NYC

The Commission on Human Rights said all of this is partially in opposition to illegal immigration crackdowns by the federal government.

“In the face of increasingly hostile national rhetoric, we will do everything in our power to make sure our treasured immigrant communities are able to live with dignity and respect, free of harassment and bias,” said Carmelyn Malalis, the agency’s commissioner, as The Post noted.

The directive lists several examples of acts and comments that also would  be a problem, including harassing people over their accents or grasp of English, or wielding the threat of a call to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as a tool of hate.

A hotel even “prohibits its housekeepers from speaking Spanish while cleaning because it would ‘offend’ hotel guests or make them uncomfortable,” reads another hypothetical.

By the way, ICE just arrested over 80 illegal immigrants in New York over the past five days, officials said Thursday and The Post reported.

Of the 82 people nabbed in the Big Apple, Long Island and the Hudson Valley during a five-day period that ended this past Wednesday, half of them had previously been in local law enforcement custody but were released despite active detainers from ICE, the agency said.

New York City is a sanctuary city — and sanctuary cities tend to honor ICE detainers only in certain situations.

An active detainer is a formal request from ICE that cities or other areas hold suspects for an additional 48 hours after their release date — so the agency can apprehend them.

Plenty of people are already weighing in on the new law against the uttering of “illegal alien” — share your thoughts.

This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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