Fighting the Tide of History GOP reinstates usage of “illegal alien” in Library of Congress’ records, book burning next?
Here is some disturbing news from Capitol Hill. Republicans on a powerful House committee yesterday narrowly defended a Tea Party-fueled move to instruct the Library of Congress how to label immigrants living in the country illegally.
The GOP move is designed to force the Library of Congress to retain the term “illegal alien” for cataloging and search purposes, reversing the library’s plan to replace “illegal alien” with less prejudicial terms like “noncitizens” or “unauthorized immigrants.”
Appropriations Committee Democrats tried to defend the library’s move, which came in response to a petition from the American Library Association, to change the immigration-related search terms. They lost by a 25-24 vote.
The library said in a March 26 statement that “the phrase illegal aliens has taken on a pejorative tone in recent years” and added that “aliens” can be confusing since it can also mean beings from another planet.
KJ