Nearly two dozen House Republicans have proposed legislation that would prohibit the Library of Congress from removing the terms “aliens” and “illegal aliens” from its subject headings, a move the Library made last month.
Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn., introduced her bill on Wednesday, and said it’s meant to stop “political correctness run amok.”
“You can’t make this stuff up: The Library of Congress is banning the use of the phrase ‘illegal alien’ in its catalog system,” she said on her Facebook page. “We can’t keep sanitizing this issue and bending our language to the whims of left-wing special interest groups.”
“Illegal immigration is just that — illegal,” she added.
“This needless policy change by the Library of Congress embodies so much of what taxpayers find enraging about Washington,” Black told the Washington Examiner. “Hopefully this bill will give Washington the push needed to stop thinking up the most politically correct ways to describe illegal immigration and start thinking about solutions to address it.”
Democrats have said the term “illegal alien” is offensive to people who are in the country, and say they should be called “undocumented immigrants.”
On March 22, the Library of Congress agreed, and said its subject headings would no longer refer to aliens or illegal aliens. Instead, they would be changed to “noncitizens,” and said illegal immigration would be referred to as “unauthorized immigration.”
Black’s bill simply requires the Library of Congress to keep the terms “aliens” and “illegal aliens.” Her bill is supported by 20 other House Republicans.
