On February 1, we reported on a Washington Times piece revealing ICE’s new polices regarding immigration terminology. Briefly, the new policy announced at that time involved substituting “undocumented noncitizen” or “undocumented individual” for “alien” or “illegal alien.” The officials making this decision apparently deemed it unimportant that they’ve thereby come into conflict with the government’s official, statutory use of “alien.” Section 101(a)(3) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), for example, defines alien as “any person not a citizen or national of the United States.”
“The whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought. In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.” — George Orwell, 1984
Since then, the language police have been busy. A February 12 memo from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services acting director to USCIS officials encouraged “more inclusive language in the agency’s outreach efforts, internal documents and in overall communication with stakeholders, partners and the general public.” The following changes were suggested:
As Orwell knew, language is the key to political power. Change how people talk and you change how they think.
For more, see “Immigration Newspeak II — USCIS Edition” on CIS.org.