La eliminación del término ‘alien’ para referirse a inmigrantes

The elimination of the term ‘alien’ to refer to immigrants

December 10, 2021

Since the beginning of his administration, President Joe Biden has talked about replacing the word 'alien' to refer to immigrants with the term noncitizen or non-citizen.

On the day of the beginning of his administration, President Joe Biden presented his immigration reform plan, in which he contemplated the elimination of the term alien, to refer to immigrants in the United States and replace it with noncitizen. This proposal seeks to emphasize the use of terms and concepts that respect the human dignity of migrants.

Later, in April, the new administration ordered US immigration agencies to stop using the terms illegal alien and replace them with undocumented noncitizen and integration.

"The way we choose to communicate is important to strengthening the laws of the country, while respecting the dignity and humanity of the people with whom we interact," explained Tae Johnson, director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE).

On the other hand, in September the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, signed a law that eliminated the word alien of all its state laws and replaced them in the same way with noncitizen or immigrant. "By changing this term, we are ensuring that California laws reflect the values of our state," explained the governor.

And more recently, in November, the Library of Congress announced that it would stop using the terms aliens and illegal aliens, as categories and would start to use the terms noncitizens and illegal inmigration, following the recent trend from the federal government and the state of California. However, since 2014 a group of students had requested to change these concepts.

The American Library Association (ALA), celebrated the decision of the Library of Congress to update and eliminate the use of dehumanizing terms towards migrants. We are pleased that the Library of Congress is replacing these outdated and dehumanizing subject headings. This update better reflects common terminology and is respectful of library workers and users of all backgrounds. It also reflects the core value of social justice for ALA members, who have been at the forefront of this change for years, ”explained ALA President Patty Wong.