'Strangers Into Citizens'

In the year of the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade, it is a grave matter that close to half a million people living in Britain today do not enjoy the protection of the law.

Shocking. This is from a statement by the 'Stranger into Citizens campaign who held a rally in London today. Why would these poor people be arbitarily deprived of the rule of law?

These people are termed "illegal"

So it's a reference to people who have chosen to break UK law by entering without the legal right to do so. I guess they really don't 'enjoy' the law. They are of course entitled to the protection of the law but choose not to avail themselves of it in order to conceal their own law breaking.

These people from far-off lands are not strangers to the churches, mosques and communities which they frequent, and where they have found consolation and protection. There they are not considered foreigners but friends.

Are 'foreigners' and 'friends' really a mutually exclusive concepts? If somebody is in the UK illegally it is simply a statement of fact to say that they are a foreigner. That this campaign objects to this description pretty much sums up their intellectual integrity.

So we believe that the conscience of our society must again be shaken and seek to extend to undocumented workers the recognition of the law.

'Undocumented workers' is an American euphemism for people who have entered a country illegally. Which is kind of ironic when they are demanding that everyone should have the 'recognition of the law' for people who have declined to recognise the law. If spmeone wishes to enter this country, then they can attempt to meet whatever criteria is set by the government in an honest an open manner, there is no excuse for people decidng the law shouldn't apply to them.