Biden wants to remove this controversial word from US laws

2021/01/23 Leave a comment

Words matter:

It’s just one small part of the sweeping immigration overhaul President Biden is pushing.

But the symbolic significance is huge.

Biden’s proposed bill, if passed, would remove the word “alien” from US immigration laws, replacing it with the term “noncitizen.”
 
It’s a deliberate step intended to recognize America as “a nation of immigrants,” according to a summary of the bill released by the new administration.
 
The term “illegal alien,” long decried as a dehumanizing slur by immigrant rights advocates, became even more of a lightning rod during the Trump era — with some top federal officials encouraging its use and several states and local governments taking up measures to ban it.
 
“The language change on the first day of this administration, with Kamala Harris the daughter of immigrants, to me it’s not just symbolic…it’s foundational,” says Jose Antonio Vargas, an undocumented immigrant whose organization, Define American, pushes for more accurate portrayals of immigrants.
 
“How we describe people really sticks. It affects how we treat them,” he says. “How we talk about immigrants shapes the policies. It frames what are the issues really at stake here. It acknowledges that we’re talking about human beings and families.”

What the laws say now

US code currently defines “alien” as “any person not a citizen or national of the United States.”
 
Officials in the past have pointed to the term’s prevalence in US laws to defend their word choices.
 
In 2018, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions instructed prosecutors to refer to someone who’s illegally in the United States as “an illegal alien,” citing the US code in an agency-wide email.
 
The term “alien” was often invoked by President Trump in speeches as he warned of what he saw as the dangers of unchecked illegal immigration.
 
Speaking at the Mexico border last week in one of his final addresses as president, Trump used the term at least five times.
 
“We were in the Trump administration the perennial boogeyman,” Vargas said.
 
“Whenever Trump was in trouble, he started talking about the ‘illegals’ and talking about the border.”
 
But not everyone in the Trump administration was a fan of the language.
 
In an interview with the Washington Post published shortly before he resigned as acting secretary of Homeland Security in 2019, Kevin McAleenan told the newspaper he avoided using the term “illegal aliens” and instead described people as “migrants.”
 
“I think the words matter a lot,” McAleenan said, according to the Post. “If you alienate half of your audience by your use of terminology, it’s going to hamper your ability to ever win an argument.”

This isn’t the first effort to change such wording

California struck “alien” from the state’s labor code in 2015.
 
New York City removed the term from its charter and administrative code last year.
 
Throughout President Trump’s time in office, immigrant advocates criticized dehumanizing rhetoric.
In guidelines issued in 2019, New York City banned the term “illegal alien” when used “with intent to demean, humiliate or harass a person.” Violations, the city warned, could result in fines up to $250,000.
 
And last year two Colorado lawmakers introduced a bill to replace the term “illegal alien” with “undocumented immigrant.” The bill never made it to the state Senate floor for a vote.

Prank callers targeted the term early in the Trump administration

One of the first times the use of the term “alien” drew widespread attention during the Trump administration was in 2017 after officials publicized a hotline for victims of “crimes committed by removable aliens.”
 
Prank callers swiftly flooded the line with reports about space aliens, sharing examples on social media of their comments about Martians and UFOs.
 
But Vargas says the term and others used to demonize immigrants are no laughing matter.
 
“Language has power. And I think we saw that in the Trump administration, how it used dehumanizing terms and how it debased language and in turn debased people,” Vargas says. “If you call them ‘alien,’ of course you’re going to put them in jail, of course you’re going to lock them up, of course you’re not going to care that you’re separating little kids from their parents.”
 
Vargas says the new administration’s effort to use more respectful language gives him hope that some Americans’ views on undocumented immigrants could also shift. Changing just one word, he says, could have a far-reaching impact for millions of people.
 
Source: Biden wants to remove this controversial word from US laws

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Immigration Officials Want To Change References Of “Foreign National” To “Alien” In A Policy Manual

2019/09/28 1 Comment

Not an innocent change:

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services officials are planning to change all references of the term “foreign national” to “alien” in the agency’s policy manual, according to a Department of Homeland Security official with knowledge of the plans — a move that will upset immigration advocates who have long said the word is offensive and unnecessary.

While the term “alien” is found within US Code and is regularly referenced in the immigration system and in court rulings, the word has, in recent years, been wiped from the California Labor Code and the Library of Congress after advocacy efforts.

USCIS, however, is looking to proactively insert more references to the term into its policy manual, an online collection of its immigration policies, by replacing all references of “foreign national” to “alien” to describe those who are not US citizens. The policy manual posted online features more than 800 references to the term “foreign national” and already features more than 100 references to aliens.

A spokesperson for USCIS defended the change, saying that the agency “proposes to use the legal term in the Immigration and Nationality Act.”

“It is important that our agency, which administers our nation’s lawful immigration system, align our internal materials with the INA,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “Under the INA, the term ‘alien’ means ‘any person not a citizen or national of the United States.'”

The agency has long been known as focused on providing services to immigrants, evaluating visa, work authorization, and naturalization applications. Under the Trump administration, it has made a restrictive turn, focusing more on enforcement, former officials say. In 2018, the agency removed the phrase “a nation of immigrants” from its mission statement.

“Like the decision to remove the phrase ‘nation of immigrants’ from USCIS’s motto, this is yet another step in the administration’s effort to make our legal immigration system unfriendly and inaccessible,” said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a policy analyst at the American Immigration Council. “At a time when USCIS faces historic and still-growing backlogs, it’s disturbing that the agency is using its limited resources to carry out what appears to be an anti-immigrant messaging campaign.”

The planned work comes as USCIS deals with crushing backlogs of immigration benefits cases. Average case processing times have jumped 46% from the 2016 fiscal year to the 2018 fiscal year. The average processing time has gone up from just over six months to more than nine months in that same time period, according to data compiled by the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

Ur Jaddou, the former chief counsel for USCIS, said the effort to replace the words will be time-consuming.

“Lawyers should certainly review it to make sure it is accurate. That will take time and resources,” she said.

Since he began as acting director, Ken Cuccinelli has pushed policies that cut back the time immigrants have to consult with attorneys before their initial asylum interviews and implored asylum officers to be stricter in interviews.

He has maintained an active Twitter feed where he has attacked the asylum officers’ union for criticizing a policy that forces immigrants to remain in Mexico, advertised his TV appearances, and repeatedly rebuked local jurisdictions for policies that limit their cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In recent weeks, he requested the ability to publicize the personal information of refugees and asylees who were accused of crimes.

As a Virginia lawmaker in 2008, Cuccinelli sponsored a resolution calling for a rewrite of the Constitution to deny citizenship to Americans who were born to immigrants who crossed the border without authorization.

“This sounds like something utterly unnecessary and potentially offensive, and the only silver lining is maybe this waste of time and resources will slow down more substantive adverse policies that they no doubt have in store as well,” said Doug Rand, a former immigration official under the Obama administration.

Jaddou said the push to the term “alien” was unfortunate.

“Taking the time to change it back — when I haven’t heard that the use of the less offensive term has created issues — makes me wonder about the actual motive to return to a term that many find offensive,” she said.

Source: Immigration Officials Want To Change References Of “Foreign National” To “Alien” In A Policy Manual

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