The Biden administration has instructed Department of Homeland Security officials to use more “inclusive language” when talking about immigration.
In an email sent on Tuesday, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Tracy Renaud sent a memo encouraging “more inclusive language in the agency’s outreach efforts, internal documents, and in overall communication with stakeholders, partners, and the general public.”
Instead of referring to illegal immigrants as illegal aliens, officials should use the word “noncitizen,” “undocumented noncitizen” or “undocumented individual.”
The memo also urged USCIS officials to discontinue their use of the term “assimilation” and use “integration” instead.
Immigrants who apply for benefits like green cards should be referred to as “customers,” the memo said.
The term “alien” is routinely found within U.S. Code and is regularly referenced in the immigration system and in court rulings to describe everyone who is not a U.S. citizen.
Robert Law, a former Trump administration official, said “alien” “literally means a person not a U.S. citizen or national.”
“That is not offensive, and neither is ‘assimilation,’” he told Axios.
The messaging makeover is just one way the Biden administration is attempting to push the U.S. closer toward open-border policies.
The administration also unveiled a broad bill on Thursday that would provide an eight-year pathway to citizenship for 11 million illegal aliens.
The Democrats’ legislation reflects the broad priorities for immigration changes that Biden laid out on his first day in office, including an increase in visas, more money to process asylum applications, new technology at the southern border and funding for economic development in Latin American countries, the latter of which proved highly profitable for the Biden family’s personal finances during the Obama administration.
However, with Democrats holding only a slender majority in Congress, the bill faces long odds of success since it barely contributes to border security, which is necessary to secure Republican votes.
