“Never Say Undocumented” Here’s the ad and the movie

30 Jan “Never Say Undocumented” Here’s the ad and the movie

posted from Seattle, WA on Jan 30, 2026.

This ad will appear in the A-section of the Seattle Times on Sunday, February 1, 2026.

Here’s the movie:

Here is the text so search engines might be able to see it:

Save America

The innocent-sounding inaccurate word that helps propel the fascist agenda

Never Say Undocumented

The terminology we use to label things we fight over can force the outcome of the fight. If we accept that a person is an “un” something, why give them rights? The mass abduction campaign is the result of a fiction thoughtlessly embraced across the political spectrum: That the targeted people can be called “undocumented.” This blithely ignores the very existence of our private sector, AKA our free market–the envy of the world–built on the foundation of due process. This market has issued a longstanding invitation for more workers. Had the American public sector truly wanted to kill the invite, it could have put in a verification system with onerous fines. It never did. To see these workers as undocumented is to see the world only through the lens of the public-sector. The people who came and have helped us get the work of America done over the last 50 years are NGIs: Non-Governmentally Invited workers. They should be treated as such.

For anyone who wants to skim, Here is the text of the movie which takes over 8 minutes to listen to:

This is the Movie that goes with my ad in the Seattle Times for Sunday Feb 1:

Never say Undocumented

The terminology we use in our national debates is like the terrain that a General chooses to fight over in a battle—it can be the biggest factor in determining the outcome of the fight.

Currently there is a mass abduction campaign in this country that is causing panic among vast numbers of people who are in fear of being zip-tied, forced to live in squalid holding pens where the water smells and food is rotten. People are dying in these jails and being killed on the streets as again we are seeing children separated from their mothers and fathers.

It’s all built on the foundation of an idea, that these people can be labeled:

“Undocumented “

What’s undocumented?  When you put a prefix like “un” in front of a person, that pretty much negates that person, doesn’t it?                   An “un”-person? It’s easy to deny rights to an un-person.

And unfortunately,  this word has been thoughtlessly embraced across the political spectrum from left to right.

But the word undocumented is a lie. Not an intentional one,  it’s  an organically-arrived at word but it is functionally a lie.                       WHY?

Basically I’m saying it’s a lie because it disrespects what I believe is the most crucial and important thing about America—That is hosts a robust and healthy private sector AKA it’s free market, the largest in the world and  the envy of the world.  The word ‘Undocumented’ blinds us to seeing the invisible hand of the market here, and indeed, the word undocumented makes the hand doubly invisible.

To ignore is to disrespect. The word undocumented disrespects our free market by completely ignoring its role in bringing these people up here. 

Why does it matter so much that this is ignored here?  Our free market, the largest in the world, is  built on a foundation of due process. What do I mean by that? There’s a misconception about what creates wealth. Some people say hard work, but there’s hard workers everywhere, Some people think it’s smarts but there are smart people everywhere. Some people think it is big infrastructure projects like bridges dams and roads but there are plenty of corrupt, non human-rights-respecting countries around the world that have big infrastructure and the population still lives in poverty. What builds wealth is the protection of individual rights by the government and society.   Rights mean tort law, the ability to sue when you’ve been wronged. Critically they mean the  right to one’s own property and the right to speak your mind, i.e. freedom of speech, plus the right to practice your religion, the freedom of free assembly, freedom of the press and the freedom from arbitrary search and seizure. They all need to be spelled out of course, but in a way they are all the same right.

When people know they have these rights it allows them to make the most efficient decisions about their lives, work at the places they want to work, and start the businesses they want to start.  This result is a fabulous amount of wealth, and it’s why The US has the largest economy in the world.

CAVEAT: We’d be richer if we had in the past and would in the future complete the American project and make sure these rights extend to all groups and all individuals in America.  I’m not turning a blind eye or making any excuses for America’s failures in this living up to its own ideals. There is absolutely room for improvement.

But that said the point here is that  America’s private sector has hung out a sign for the world to see, figuratively and even at times literally, that says

                                                  YOU’RE INVITED!

Now the free market doesn’t speak English. The main way the market invites people to do things is through the mechanism of price. Even before the internet, information about price disparities shot around the world at warp speed.

 The hourly wage for a job, say,  in a meatpacking plant in Omaha is like a sign at the border that says:                                                YOU’RE INVITED!

Having said that I’ve heard of literal signs posted in places in Central America that give people  coordinates and say show up here and you’ll have a job at a in 15 minutes that pays 20 times what you are earning now.

We could have stopped or significantly dampened this invitation if the US had wanted to. We could have passed stringent laws that harshly punished any employer who hired anyone who wasn’t on a database.  I’m not saying we should have but we could have.  However, that never happened .  All the bills died a bipartisan death when sectors of the business community and the politicians that represent them and the public objected and even in 100% Republican jurisdictions laws like this weren’t passed

That’s why undocumented is a lie—it’s a word that wants to put blindfolds over your eyes so you fail to see the real story of what brought these people to America.  Think about this: the private sector is much larger than the public sector and thus more powerful, and it is loudly saying “come up here.”  The public sector, however, is offering a mixed message because it never really could make upits mind. This is approximately what the public sector was saying:

Technically you are not allowed to just come here.  But the reality is, if you are careful, we can probably arrange to look the other way.

This means that the people who are up here working, managing farms, putting up drywall, cleaning hotel rooms and starting successful businesses are basically invitees.  Conservatives especially, who tend to value the free market and are generally more willing to sing its praise, should see this point right away.

So they are invitees not undocumented people.  But there is an issue, I totally agree. That’s why I want to use a term that reflects reality: You’ve heard of NGOs, right, Non-governmental organizations?  Well these folks are NGIs, Non-governmentally-invited people or workers.  NGIs.

They deserve to be treated as such.

Thank you for listening, this Ed Newbold from Seattle WA who wants you to  “never say undocumented.”

Thanks for being here. Big Apologies no Comment section on this blog, don’t know how to stop the Bots but I would love to hear from anyone (!) at ednewbold1@yahoo.com