‘Alien’ Is a Legitimate Term

The Quote Below—More Misinformation from the Media

“Last month, an email obtained by Axios revealed that Joe Biden’s administration is encouraging the elimination of the use of the term “alien” or “illegal alien” in favor of “undocumented individual” or “undocumented noncitizen” in all official documents, outreach efforts, and all other communications, to describe those in the US who are not citizens. It’s a significant development that is welcomed by advocates of the undocumented, since the long-standing use of “alien” is a not-so-subtle dog whistle that has been effectively used to dehumanize . . .  the undocumented, . . . .

“While some triumphant Democrats argue that this signals a reversal of the relentless demonization of Mexican and Central American immigrants that Donald Trump so effectively channeled and advanced, that would be wishful thinking: the hostile stance assumed by the former president was not new in this country. The roots of his “Build the Wall” rhetoric and constituency can be traced back to recent events that preceded his tenure — measures like California Proposition 187 in 1994, for example, which made undocumented immigrants (“illegal aliens” in the language of the ballot measure) ineligible for public benefits. . . .

“The term alien, as applied to migrants and others has a long history that dates back to English common law. Derived from the Latin alienus, meaning “belonging to another,” alien was used in England to describe someone “born outside the king’s dominion’s, an apparently neutral usage. But the use of the word in the US has evolved over time in the US to reflect different stages of the nation’s history — almost always reflecting racist discrimination. In the fledgling United States, the 1790 Naturalization Act limited naturalization to an “alien” who is a “free white person.” . . .

“Latinos had come under suspicion because of the way DHS lumped together enforcement against potential terrorists with that against those who violated immigration laws. Many in the Republican Party . . . such as began to use rhetoric that implied terrorists were slipping into the US through the border with Mexico. ‘Criminal aliens,’ he called them. . . .” – Biden Is Right about Aliens, Ed Morales, CNN, 3/2/21 [Link]

Fact Check of the Quote Above: This writer seems to think it is “dehumanizing” when someone refers to law-breakers as law-breakers. The term “illegal alien” is not inaccurate or demeaning. “Alien,” meaning foreigner has a long history in American law. It is not a racial slur against nonwhites. As the author even admits, it referred to foreign whites in the 1790 Naturalization Act. To say “illegal alien” is simply a description of foreigner illegally residing in the United States.

Illegal alien advocates try to obfuscate this reality by suggesting that the only problem with foreign law-breakers is that they just lack papers, something that’s really no big deal. This is like saying that it’s fine to seek treatment from “undocumented doctors,” even if the document they lack is a medical degree. In point of fact, however, illegal aliens usually possess quite a number of documents, such as IDs stolen from citizens, which they use to live lawlessly in our country. What they lack are papers documenting their legal residency.

Another underhanded tactic these advocates use is personal attacks, particularly race-baiting, against their opponents. And they conceal their dehumanizing rhetoric by falsely claiming that the opponents dehumanize illegal aliens. Since they like to speculate on others’ motives, it can be useful to speculate on theirs. It is obvious that these advocates have little respect for our rule of law or the significance of our citizenship, which they scarcely distinguish from illegal residence. This is evident in the writer’s distain for California’s Proposition 13 which would have denied illegal aliens equal access to benefits intended for citizens.

If illegal alien advocates care little about law and citizenship, and indeed the border that defines our sovereignty, it is not unreasonable to suspect that they are disloyal—or to put more bluntly, traitors and subversives. Without a doubt many of them are unsavory. They are politicians seeking cheap votes, business interests wanting cheap labor, Latino supremacists desiring more ethnic clout, and left-wing radicals seek to destabilize our society.

Joining them are foreign interests with something to gain from an open and borderless America. They include governments that want to dump their excess poor people on our country. Others include terrorists. Contrary to the writer’s view, there is a link between lax immigration law enforcement and terrorism.

It is patriotism to stress the distinctions between one’s country and another. That means reasonable and proper distinctions between citizens and aliens. Those who disagree are not patriotic.

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