Immigration extremist Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-TX, has introduced legislation to eradicate the term “illegal alien” from all federal documents, including federal laws.
The phrase is a legal term in immigration law that refers to foreign peoples who are inside the U.S. without permission. The word “alien” refers to any non-U.S. citizen, and the adjective “illegal” refers to the alien’s status under law. Not all aliens are illegal. Some aliens have permission to be in the U.S.
But Castro, left-wingers, and most establishment journalists reject the term because they think it hurts the feelings of foreigners inside the U.S. illegally.
Otto Santa Ana, a left-wing Hispanic professor of linguistics at UCLA claims the term “demonizes” immigrants. He says the term is used make unfair distinctions between people. “They are no longer people that need to be considered the way we would consider” other people, he said. “It’s easy to conceptualize them as a horror, as dangerous, as inferior.”
AIC Foundation president John Vinson explained that the distinction between legal and illegal is quite sound. “It is true that the term is designed to consider legally residing people differently from people residing illegally. That’s the whole point of immigration law,” he said. “Without that distinction, we would have no immigration laws at all. The term doesn’t ‘dehumanize’ anyone. The word alien simply means a person belonging to a foreign country.”
Castro’s bill would change any reference to “illegal alien” or “alien” in any federal statute, rule, regulation, executive order, publication or any other federal document to “foreign national” or “undocumented foreign national.”
“Words matter,” Castro said about his bill, titled Correcting Hurtful and Alienating Names in Government Expression (CHANGE) Act. “The words ‘alien’ and ‘illegal alien’ work to demonize and dehumanize the migrant community. They should have no place in our government’s description of human beings.”
Castro is a long-time supporter of illegal aliens. He has sponsored legislation to repeal criminal penalties for aliens who illegally enter the U.S., and wants U.S. taxpayers to pay for legal representation for any alien fighting deportation proceedings.