Lawyers know that words matter. We carefully choose our words to communicate clearly and persuade effectively.
Lawmakers also know that words matter. They strategically choose the words that lay down our laws.
Many years ago (around the time our nation was created), lawmakers chose a word to describe people who are subject to our immigration laws. The word they chose? Alien.
Maybe there was some intellectually honest reason the lawmakers from the 1790s chose “alien” to describe people who want to become citizens (the first immigration laws set forth the process for a citizen from other nations to become a U.S. citizen). But I’ve never liked the word.
When I was a young attorney getting my appellate practice started, I was writing a lot of appeals and motions in immigration cases that were handled by other attorneys (actually, I still am). In those early days, I got stuck on the word “alien” in my briefs.
It was utterly dehumanizing, and I hated it. I couldn’t believe that any judge (whether in the immigration court, on the BIA, or at a Circuit Court) would avoid the negative connotation that word has today, conjuring up images of a non-human being that is so different they could never be an American.
I searched for a way to avoid this pernicious label, even though I was advised by immigration attorneys that I should follow convention and keep the language in my brief consistent with the language in the immigration laws.
I refused and finally settled on the practice of using the foreign national’s name in the briefs and motions I wrote (even when the Government and the judges used “alien”). Designating a respondent in an immigration case by their name is much more persuasive, in my opinion, as it draws a human element into a case involving an actual human.
Because humans are not aliens (they’re not “illegals” either, as I’ve written about before).
So you can imagine my delight to read about President Biden’s proposed immigration law, which is the opening salvo for the battle over immigration reform that is afoot. It covers many different areas, but makes one demand that will result in a systemic change of the narrative: use “noncitizen” instead of “alien” in immigration laws and the proceedings to enforce them.
I could not agree more. It’s about time everyone stopped using a prejudicial word to refer to our fellow humans, most of whom are merely trying to become citizens of a nation where nearly every single existing citizen (apart from Native Americans) is also an immigrant.
