The Biden Administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) issued an order last week demanding that immigration judges no longer use the term “alien” when referring to illegal aliens in court or in their written opinions, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
The order, first issued on July 23rd, came from a DOJ official named Jean King. King’s order applies to all 539 immigration judges in the country, and orders them to instead use more politically correct terms, such as “respondent, applicant, petitioner, beneficiary, migrant, noncitizen, or non-U.S. citizen.” “Alien” has been the correct terminology for anyone who enters the United States illegally ever since the Immigration and Nationality Act, which defines an alien as “any person not a citizen or national of the United States.”
In the order, King admitted that the DOJ decision was influenced in part by the mainstream media, citing the fact that the Associated Press first decided back in 2013 to drop the use of the term “illegal immigrant,” which led to a left-wing trend to replace the word “illegal” with “undocumented.” Since taking office in January, Biden has taken steps to remove the use of the phrases “alien” and “illegal immigrant” through several executive orders. Some radical Democrats, including Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), have advocated for passing a law to ban the use of such phrases. And in New York City, a recent law was passed to make it a crime to use the phrases “illegal” and “illegal alien.”
The seemingly mundane and anti-First Amendment policy focus of the Biden Administration reflects the broader disconnect between the administration and the American people, as immigration continues to rank as a major issue that most voters care about in the Biden era. More than any other issue, Biden’s approval ratings are the poorest across the spectrum on the issue of immigration, as the White House has done little to nothing to stem the flow of record numbers of illegal aliens pouring across the southern border since he came to power. Biden campaigned in 2020 on a promise to give amnesty to illegal aliens, as well as to provide taxpayer-funded benefits to illegals, including free healthcare and free education.