The Trump Effect: Gov. DeSantis Reminds Woke Reporter It’s OK To Call Illegal Aliens Illegal Again

One of the themes in President Donald Trump’s inaugural address on Monday was a “revolution of common sense.”

“It’s all about common sense,” Trump said, before announcing his executive order “declar[ing] a national emergency at our southern border.”

That there is a national emergency there should be, well, common sense. Consider the fact that, under the previous president, roughly 10 million illegal aliens were encountered trying to enter the United States in an unlawful manner. However, doing anything about this was considered impolitic. In fact, it was impolitic to even call illegal immigrants “illegal,” or referring to the process of letting them free in the United States pending an immigration court date as “catch and release.”

Instead, a whole raft of tortured euphemisms to refer to these individuals and the process were coined by the left and the establishment media — I repeat myself, as always — and those who didn’t use the approved terminology was, at the very least, suspected of wrongthink.

On Monday, we didn’t necessarily slam the door on that unhappy period in our national linguistic life, but we began to close it. If you need evidence, Exhibit A, dear reader: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis reminding a reporter that, yes, you can call illegal immigrants illegal again — since, well, that’s how they got here.

The move came Thursday as DeSantis visited Jacksonville to promote proposed legislation that would “allocate money to help local law enforcement agencies arrest and jail illegal immigrants, keeping them behind bars until immigration officials can secure, then deport them,” according to Jacksonville Today.

“We want our localities, municipalities, counties and, of course, state — all of them to help facilitate this important mission,” DeSantis said. “[It would] not displace the federal government’s role — obviously it is their primary responsibility — but to complement that so that we have robust interior enforcement of our nation’s laws again.”

However, the big news from the visit was DeSantis’ showdown with a reporter from WJXC-TV who was quite fluent in wokespeak.

After announcing his affiliation, the reporter began his question: “Florida has hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants–” he said, before DeSantis cut him off.

“The statutory term, per the Trump administration, is illegal alien,” he said.

“Undocumented, it’s like if I get in my car and I forget my wallet. Oh, OK, I don’t have my document on me, my driver’s license. But I still have a right to drive. I just made a mistake.

“This is intentional to come in illegally, and it’s not just the question of missing a document,” he continued. “It’s a question of, you know, you violated the laws that were very clear, and knowingly, and with the help of the cartels in many cases”

🚨 OMG. This reporter just called illegals “undocumented,” DeSantis corrected him, and the reporter re-phrased the question because of it.

REPORTER: Florida has hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants-

GOVERNOR DESANTIS: -The statutory term, per the Trump… pic.twitter.com/9nKkptj1kq

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) January 23, 2025

And, indeed, a fact-sheet from the White House released Wednesday about President Trump’s executive orders on border security uses “illegal aliens” or “illegal immigration” nine times.

“Undocumented immigrants?” Zero times.

According to Florida Politics, DeSantis went on to chastise the media for playing along with the wokespeak and the leftist line on illegal immigration.

“The media will be like, they’ll say, ‘Immigrants commit crimes at lower rates,’ and they conflate legal with illegal immigrants,” he said.

“I would hope legal immigrants commit at less rates, because if they’re committing at higher rates, why would they have knowingly been led into this country? Illegal immigrants, the crime rate should be close to zero because we can choose who we’re bringing in.

“Obviously our native population, you know, it’s not like we can choose. ‘Oh, well, we’re going to send you to Chile or something,’” he added. “If you’re a natural-born American, it is what it is. But any crime committed by an illegal by definition was avoidable if you had been enforcing the law.”

Now, of course, this isn’t to say that Ron DeSantis was some hypersensitive milquetoast before Trump took the oath of office on Monday. Far from it, actually. But for those of you hoping that “peak woke” has already passed, this is yet another hopeful sign. Hopefully, even more politicians will start telling it like it is, unafraid of using terms the media deems objectionable.

Common sense is back, America. It feels like a new, fresh spring day … in the middle of an icy January. Ah well. Sure, the weather outside is frightful, but the candor is so delightful.

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