I agree with this premise.
They have managed [deliberately] to make everyone, now matter how they enter this country, into an “immigrant”.
Everyone who isn't born here but comes here to live is an immigrant.
My point is that a very loud segment of so-called conservatives (who are probably just mercenary leftists in disguise) has inundated the debate -- especially on FR -- with biggotted sloganeering and has made all Latinos into "illegals" and frankly the practice is revolting.
No one here lumps all Latinos as “illegals”. Those who are here illegally are not immigrants, they are border invaders.
Many FReepers here are Latinos or Latinas, so don’t lump all FReepers into your category of “biggotted”. You are guilty of bigotry yourself when you do that.
I don't agree with you on this.
I do think most are referring to the vast majority of illegals as Mexicans (true). I do. And most of us refer to them in fairly derogatory ways. As for those that live where the illegal Mexicans have overrun the area, I don't blame them for being nasty.
As for the "immigrant" label, we are arguing semantics. But, in this argument and most of the arguments with the left, semantics do matter very much. Immigrant is a term that used to be reserved for legal entries. Thus a more positive connotation than "illegal alien". Which is precisely why the left has used only immigrant when discussing this.
Ditto for "diversity", "tolerance", "gender", "sensitivity" and a host of other labels. The left has done this very effectively, partly because of the complete cooperation of the MSM, but also because the right is intimidated and afraid to engage in a war of semantics. Big mistake. Words have meaning, perception is reality. Republicans are clueless on this.
Back to your original statement. I do see latinos being lumped in the debate, no question. But, unfortunately that is to some degree self inflicted. If groups that label themselves as hispanic in nature come out as vocal supporters of illegal Mexicans, they are bringing it on themselves. Hispanics and hispanic groups that are silent on this are allowing themselves to be perceived as pro illegal Mexican. In this instance, if you are not publicly against it, you will be presumed to be in favor of it. The perception then becomes that all hispanics are in favor of illegals. Of which the majority are Mexicans. And I would suggest that this perception is largely due to the left and its sycophants in the press. It is their strategy to lump all hispanics together. Works to their advantage as regards public perception.
I do not know for certain how accurate this is (I suspect it is very accurate), but I have seen it written that at least 50% of the Mexicans in the US are illegal. Means if you assume a Mexican you see is illegal, your betting odds are pretty good.