New York Times (Editorial):
October 20, 2015
Lawmakers
probably meant no harm when they codified the term “alien” into the
landmark 1952 bill that remains the basis of America’s immigration
system. Since then, “alien”
has found its way into many parts of the statute: foreigners granted
temporary work permits are “non-permanent resident aliens”; those who
get green cards by making investments in American businesses are “alien
entrepreneurs”; Nobel laureates and pop stars
who want to make America home can apply to become “aliens of
extraordinary ability.”
Over
the years, the label has struck newcomers as a quirky aspect of moving
to America. Many, understandably, have also come to regard it as a
loaded, disparaging word,
used by those who regard immigrants as less-than-human burdens rather
than as assets.
Recognizing
how dehumanizing the term is to many immigrants, officials in
California recently took commendable steps to phase it out. In August,
Gov. Jerry Brown signed
into law a bill that deletes the term from the state’s labor code. Last
month, the California Republican Party adopted a new platform that does
not include the term “illegal alien,” saying it wanted to steer clear
of the vitriolic rhetoric that the presidential
candidate Donald Trump has injected into the 2016 race.
Several
news organizations have adopted policies discouraging its use in
reporting about immigrants. According to a review by the Pew Research
Center in 2013, the use
of the term in newspaper articles dropped sharply between 2007 and
2013. The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, the
federal agency that administers immigration benefits, has removed the
word from some documents, including green cards.
But
the term remains firmly embedded in conservative discourse, used by
Republicans to appeal to the xenophobic crowd. Mr. Trump, the leading
Republican presidential candidate,
uses the term 12 times in his ruinous immigration plan, which calls for
the mass deportation of millions of unauthorized immigrants and
proposes that Washington bill Mexico to build a wall along the border.
It was often uttered by former Gov. Mitt Romney,
the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, whose idiotic immigration
plan called for “self-deportation” by unauthorized immigrants.
“If
you want to demonize a community, you use words that demonize,” said
Muzaffar Chishti, the director of the Migration Policy Institute at New
York University School
of Law. “Alien is more demonizing than immigrant.”
Semantics
may seem like a trivial part of immigration reform, but words, and
their evolution, matter greatly in fraught policy debates.
States
that use the word alien in their laws should consider following
California’s lead. The federal government should scrub it from official
documents where possible.
In the end, though, it will be up to Congress to recognize that there
is no compelling reason to keep a hostile term in the law that sets out
how immigrants are welcomed into the country.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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