States are trying to get rid of the term 'illegal alien.' Here's why that's important.

States are pushing hard to remove or replace the terms “illegal alien” and “alien” from official documents when referring to noncitizens — a fight that experts say has a monumental impact on creating a more inclusive society, at a time when immigration has become the topic du jour among GOP lawmakers.

California Democrats in February introduced a bill to eliminate “alien” from state laws and codes. On April 6, the legislation moved out of committee and is now headed for a state Assembly floor vote.

“The term dehumanizes men, women and children, and it has often been weaponized against immigrants of color, such as the racist laws intended to block Chinese immigration in the late 19th century,” said Democratic Assemblymember Evan Low on Feb. 18. “Immigration is the backbone of the American identity, and the process of naturalization should be one we embrace rather than pitting citizens against noncitizens.”

On March 30, the Colorado state legislature similarly passed a bill to replace “illegal alien” with “worker without authorization” in the state’s public contracts. The legislation is now on Democratic Gov. Jared Polis’ desk awaiting approval.

“Hate speech and xenophobic rhetoric has risen across our nation in recent years and it’s up to us to pass policies that affirm the humanity of marginalized communities,” Democratic state Sen. Julie Gonzales said in March. “Changing the language we use to refer to immigrants in our statute books is a small but important step forward in disarming hate.”

At the federal level, President Joe Biden has also moved to make immigration language less dehumanizing.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service plans to remove the term “aliens” in its policy manual, BuzzFeedNews reported late March. It’s a stark reversal from the Trump administration, which actively inserted the term in references to “foreign nationals.”

In February, the Biden administration directed USCIS officials to stop using “alien” and “illegal alien” in the agency’s communications as well.

And a Jan. 20 White House fact sheet on the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, which would create a path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants, noted the word “alien” would be replaced with “noncitizen” in the nation’s immigration laws.

Experts say the changes are small but important.

Anti-bias consultant Suzanne Wertheim called the process long overdue, noting that dehumanization and skewed framing are two major problems that come with usage of such language.

“One important component of word choice that people often overlook is what we call ‘framing.’ What is the frame, or scenario, evoked by the word?” Wertheim said. “The framing on language of immigration has been pretty distorted, and distorted in ways that specifically bias people against immigrants.”

She added, “Calling a person an ‘illegal alien’ or just ‘an illegal’ is dehumanizing and ‘othering’. It frames this person as someone less than human. Dehumanization is a common precursor to violence and other forms of abuse.”

Ernesto Castaneda, founding director of the Immigration Lab at American University, said in an email that calling Latin immigrants “invaders, bad hombres, gang members,” as Donald Trump routinely did throughout his presidency, encourages violence. He cited as an example the 2019 mass shooting in El Paso, in which the suspected gunman, a 21-year-old white man, had posted a manifesto online complaining about an “invasion” of immigrants, before opening fire at a Walmart, killing 23 people.

Similarly, Castaneda said, calling COVID-19 the “China virus” has fueled a spate of anti-Asian hate crimes.

“The term [‘alien’] linguistically equates the foreign-born to an alien species coming from another planet. This term is ethnocentric as it centers Whiteness [when] equating the U.S.A.,” he said.

“…You can’t say that words don’t matter,” Leo R. Chavez, distinguished professor and chair at the University of California, Irvine’s anthropology department, said separately in a phone interview.

Painting noncitizens with the term “alien” also forms strong biases in peoples minds. “[It’s like] they’re from outer space,” Chavez said, referring to how the term persuades many people to think.

Michele McKenzie, deputy director of the nonprofit Advocates for Human Rights, said in an email, “No word so clearly labels a person as ‘other’ or fails to recognize humanity in an individual than ‘alien.’ The term long has been coupled with terms like ‘enemy,’ ‘sedition,’ and, more recently, ‘illegal.'”