A senior House Democrat from a border district in Texas plans to use the term “illegal alien” despite the Biden administration’s orders that federal immigration agents drop it in favor of language not seen as offensive by liberals.
“I can understand some people are trying to be a little bit more politically correct, but if you look at what the statutes say, they do use the word ‘alien.’ That’s what the statute does, so until the statute changes, some of us will continue to be using the word ‘alien’ on that,” Rep. Henry Cuellar told reporters during a video briefing Monday afternoon.
“I don’t think the statute is going to be changed, but I can understand that thinking of some folks,” said Cuellar, the vice chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security. “That is the word that’s in the statute until we change that.”
Cuellar, whose district stretches approximately 200 miles along the border from the Rio Grande Valley past Laredo, is the first member of President Joe Biden’s party to speak out against the administration’s move.
Officials atop U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, both agencies at the Department of Homeland Security, announced in memos Monday that personnel should start using “noncitizen” or “migrant” for “alien,” “undocumented” for “illegal,” and “integration” for “assimilation.” The change represents an attempt by the Biden administration to get rid of decades-old legal terms that were used by Republican and Democratic administrations but are seen by liberals as offensive.
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 used the term “alien,” as did the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, both of which were passed and signed into law by Democratic presidents.
In January, Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Texas Democrat, reintroduced legislation to prohibit the federal government from using “alien” when referencing a person who is not a U.S. citizen or immigrant because it is “derogatory.” The term would be replaced with “foreign national,” and in the case of someone who is not legally residing in the United States or has recently crossed the border without permission, he or she would be referred to as an “undocumented foreign national.”
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Castro’s bill is similar to Biden’s proposed U.S. Citizenship Act, which calls for “alien” to be changed to “noncitizen.”
