Now that socialist Bill de Blasio is washed out of the Democratic presidential election primaries, he's back to running New York City, doing the Sandinista thing, and banning free speech.

The New York Post has identified his latest bid to make New York Cuba:

It's now against the law in New York City to threaten someone with a call to immigration authorities or refer to them as an "illegal alien" when motivated by hate. The restrictions — violations of which are punishable by fines of up to $250,000 per offense — are outlined in a 29-page directive released by City Hall's Commission on Human Rights. "'Alien' — used in many laws to refer to a 'noncitizen' person — is a term that may carry negative connotations and dehumanize immigrants, marking them as 'other,'" reads one passage of the memo. "The use of certain language, including 'illegal alien' and 'illegals,' with the intent to demean, humiliate, or offend a person or persons constitutes discrimination."

This is an outrageous assault on free speech, as well as free thinking. The term "illegal alien" wasn't something cooked up by racists, but a federal government legal term, perfectly legal in description.

Because some breakers of immigration law and their leftist advocates don't like it, given that it ultimately creates distinctions between legal and illegal activity, some sort of truth squad is about to be set up to sort out everyday New Yorkers' correct frame of mind. Was it hateful, or wasn't it? Shall we take away someone's home equity for using it or shall we not?

And it's not as if New Yorkers aren't a politically incorrect bunch as it is — I've lived in many U.S. cities, and New York is the only one where people, rubbing elbows against different cultures and unassimilated immigrants and aliens of all stripes, openly call one another offensive names of all sorts. That's pretty much the tough-guy culture of the place. You can certainly see it in President Trump, and he's hardly the only such New Yorker.

It's not just an illegal assault on the First Amendment; it's a Petri dish for corruption. A high-ranking leftist or his son who uses the term will undoubtedly be excused. An ordinary schmoe with zero political power, or, God forbid, a Republican, will be arrested and stripped of assets in draconian example-making, similar to Stalin's show trials or Mao's self-criticism sessions. Sound like a recipe for some Salem witch hunt hysteria? Sound like the perfect set-up for some personal score-settling? You bet it does. The double standards are waiting, all in the name of ensuring that lawbreakers are never offended.

If this isn't a case for a court challenge on classic First Amendment grounds, what is? These jackasses have no right whatsoever to regulate what people say or think in that crowded, bustling city of theirs. The normal New York reaction to anything offensive is to walk away and ignore fools, got too much to do. But not these freaks. Their regulation of free speech is not only bad stuff in this instance; it's the tip of the iceberg for more regulation of free speech.

They've got to be stopped early from this outrageous usurpation of the Constitution. No illegal alien, after all, emigrates to Nicaragua or Cuba.