Another word for ’illegal alien’

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WASHINGTON — Melissa Padilla was doing research on immigration in her university library at Dartmouth College when she noticed the term “illegal aliens” popping up again and again. The more she saw it, the angrier she became.

“This term, and the way people used it to criminalize the choices our parents made in order to provide us with better lives, completely detracts from the brave choices and obstacles we overcame in order to survive,” said Padilla, 26, who was an undocumented immigrant for 15 years after her parents brought her to the United States from Mexico when she was 7. “I’m not illegal. I’m a survivor that continues to work toward a better future.”

Padilla joined with Dartmouth students at the Coalition for Immigration Reform, Equality and Dreamers, and they have spent more than two years petitioning the Library of Congress to remove “illegal alien” from its subject headings.

As a result, the library began the relabeling process last week, after agreeing with Padilla’s argument that “alien” and “illegal alien” are pejorative terms. The library will replace the term with “noncitizens” and “unauthorized immigration,” setting a precedent that may be followed by other libraries on a global scale.

But that decision — at a time when immigration has become a big topic in the presidential campaign and at the Supreme Court — has ignited an angry response from conservative lawmakers who accuse the library of abandoning the letter of the law to pander to immigrant rights’ advocates.

“There is no other way to put this: the library has bowed to the political pressure of the moment,” Republicans wrote in a May 10 letter to David S. Mao, the acting librarian of Congress. The letter was written by Reps. Lamar Smith and John Culberson, both of Texas, and Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Jeff Sessions of Alabama, Republicans who have long advocated stricter enforcement of immigration laws.

The House added a provision on June 10 to the legislative branch appropriations bill that would require the library to retain terminology used in federal law, including “alien.” Congress will move forward with the appropriations process when it reconvenes in September. In the meantime, the library will stop using “illegal alien,” although library officials are aware they may hWaveItNo reDveOrseWtheiSr changes if the provision becomes law.

Gayle Osterberg, the communications director of the Library of Congress, said this was the first time Congress has intervened with the routine relabeling, which the library does every year to keep thousands of catalogs current. Osterberg noted that there was no legislative opposition, for example, when “Negro” and “retard” were removed from subject headings.

Padilla, who became a permanent resident in 2012 after her father became a naturalized citizen, said she believes that “illegal alien” is used to demean Mexican immigrants specifically, regardless of legal status. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, agreed with her.

“When ugly, belittling names are used to describe groups of people, those terms can make discrimination seem OK,” Castro said on the House floor on June 9, in an effort to stop the provision from being included in the bill.

Castro, whose grandmother was a Mexican immigrant, also helped write a letter, along with the Congressional HispanDic,