Nolan Rappaport: Aliens need legalization, not protection from being called ‘illegal’

As previously reported on the ImmigrationProf blog, the Trump Justice Department has directed U.S. attorneys to not use the term “undocumented” but to use “illegal aliens.”   

Nolan Rappaport for the Hill claims that the “debate [over terminology] fosters bad feelings on both sides and diverts attention from the threat of deportation, which is a much more serious matter.”  He thinks that the focus should be on the legalization of undocumented immigrants, not on what they are called.

I am not sure that I agree and do not believe that it is an “either or” proposition.  We can strive to refer to people in human terms and to regularize the status of undocumented immigrants.

UPDATE (July):  Paul Schmidt on Immigration Courtside also calls on Democrats and Republicans to push for legalization of the undocumented.  He does not weigh in on the question of terminology.

Many observers, myself included, support a path to legalization for the undocumented.  Still, the terms of the debate are important.  In an article more than twenty years ago, I wrote about the importance of terminology (“Aliens” and the U.S. Immigration Laws:  The Social and Legal Construction of Nonpersons“, 28 Miami Inter-American Law Review 263 (1997)) — and use of the terms “aliens” and “illegal aliens” — in the rationalization of inhumane and harsh legal treatment of noncitizens.   President Trump’s references to immigrants in disparaging terms (see, e.g., here (“animals”), here (undocumented immigrants “infest” the U.S.), and here (referring to noncitizens from “s—hole countries”) are a rhetorical effort to justify extreme measures.  

KJ