A recent FAIR opinion column\nsubmission was flagged by an editor who questioned FAIR\u2019s use of the word\n\u201calien.\u201d The editor noted that if the\nword remained in the column, the publication would be certain to attract a lot\nof unwanted attention from social justice warriors (my words) who have deemed\nthe term at best insensitive and, at worst, outright hostile. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sadly, this folly was actually\nnothing new. FAIR has been criticized\nover the years \u2013 and sometimes have even had our opinion pieces edited \u2013 because\nof our insistence on the use of the word \u201calien\u201d when referring to\nnon-citizens. This infuriates certain\nelements of the far left, who argue that we\u2019re trying to imply that these\nindividuals are from another planet. To\nadd insult to injury, when we refer to individuals who are not in the U.S.\nlegally, we refer to them as \u201cillegal aliens,\u201d which really seems to send some\nfolks off the deep end. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We always push back against these\nobjections, noting that \u201calien\u201d is a legal term that is used widely by\nCongress, the Library of Congress, and most attorneys across the U.S. when\ndealing with immigration matters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most importantly, it is not just Republicans in Congress that use this term.\u00a0 In fact, it\u2019s worth noting that the H.R. 6<\/a>, \u201cThe American Dream and Promise Act of 2019,\u201d the amnesty bill passed this week and supported by every single Democrat in the House of Representatives, invoked the word \u201calien\u201d more than 230 times<\/strong> when referring to individuals who are not citizens of the U.S. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Case closed. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A recent FAIR opinion column submission was flagged by an editor who questioned FAIR\u2019s use of the word \u201calien.\u201d The editor noted that if the word remained in the column, the publication would be certain to attract a lot of unwanted attention from social justice warriors (my words) who have deemed the term at best<\/p>\n