The i-word no more (kudos to the BP)

There has been a welcome change to the press releases issued by the El Centro Sector Border Patrol over the past few weeks. No longer does the agency refer to the objects of its enforcement activities as “illegal immigrants.”

With the arrival of Democrat Joe Biden to the White House, the official narrative around people who come from other countries without proper documents to enter the United States has changed in a very simple but very important way.

In recent weeks, the Border Patrol has been referring to people who enter irregularly as “undocumented non-citizens.”

Apparently, the new federal administration has decided, after four years of Republican attacks on immigrants, to change the rhetoric and adapt it to the guidelines dictated worldwide when referring to undocumented immigrants.

The new policy dictated by the current administration is based on a series of principles adopted by the United Nations in 1975, when the General Assembly approved measures to guarantee the human rights of all migrant workers. These included use of the term undocumented or irregular migrant worker. Two decades later, the U.N. International Conference on Population and Development again referred to the words undocumented or irregular immigrants, in addition to suggesting their use in official texts. Eventually, the European Union adopted those terms to refer to people who arrived from other countries clandestinely.

According to the policies adopted by the United Nations, the term “illegal alien” is not only legally incorrect, but also ignores the legal obligations of all countries, while violating the principle of due process and applying an pejorative description of the people who enter the border irregularly.

Likewise, the use of the phrase dehumanizes and criminalizes these immigrants, which discourages carrying out a fair debate of their situation. According to experts, the use of the word “illegal immigrant” threatens social solidarity, impacts the cost of human lives and affects social cohesion. The European Union has pointed out that the term is not only discriminatory, but also oppressive and out of place.

An article by the law firm Border Crossing Law indicates from the outset that the term is not even included within the immigration and nationality law of the United States, which is why it makes little sense to use it in reference to a foreigner without documents to enter the country.

In fact, the article highlights that most of the undocumented immigrants in the country entered with a visa authorized by the U.S. government, but had overstayed their visa.

“When one refers to an immigrant as an ‘illegal alien,’ they are using the term as a noun,” writes the firm’s founder Shahid Haque. “They are effectively saying that the individual, as opposed to any actions that the individual has taken, is illegal. The term ‘illegal alien’ implies that a person’s existence is criminal.”

Haque continued he is “not aware of any other circumstance in our common vernacular where a crime is considered to render the individual – as opposed to the individual’s actions – as being illegal. We don’t even refer to our most dangerous and vile criminals as being ‘illegal.’”

Referring to people as “illegal” labels them criminals, when in fact, it’s not quite that simple. “While the act of entering the country without inspection is a federal misdemeanor, and for repeat offenders could be a felony, the status of being present in the United States without a visa is not an ongoing criminal violation,” Haque explains, noting that a person’s presence in United States while being out of status is a civil infraction, not a criminal offense.

Anti-immigrant activists have proposed criminalizing the presence of millions of undocumented people in the country, an attempt that has failed due to legislators recognizing the social, economic and political factors that have displaced these individuals and drawn them to the United States.

“To make federal criminal offenders of the individuals who are present in the United States under these circumstances would ignore their basic human rights,” Haque says.

The term “illegal alien” represents a violation of due process, since within the legal system all people are innocent until proven guilty. For example, white collar criminals, at the time of their arrest, are declared suspects. In contrast, when reporting to the public the arrest of undocumented immigrants, the media have referred to them as “illegal immigrants,” which represents an unfair stigmatization of the detainees.

Use of the term implies undocumented migrants are somehow less than human and promotes hostility toward them rather than inviting empathy.

While the new narrative used by the Border Patrol is a good start in treating those who enter the country illegally with dignity, I hope it will also lead to the fair treatment of those detained at this border.