The Biden administration has ended use of the phrase ‘illegal alien’. It’s about time | Moustafa Bayoumi

The language we use to discuss immigration is dehumanizing: catch and release', migrant caravans', swarms - anything, in other words, but people

This week, the Biden administration fulfilled a promise it made on Joe Biden's first day in office. Agencies that deal with immigration, such as US customs and border patrol, have now been instructed to change their official language practices. Gone are the terms alien", illegal alien" and assimilation". Instead, new vocabularies will apply, including the words noncitizen" for alien" and integration" for assimilation".

As a former alien" (who arrived here from the planet Canada") and now citizen, here's what I say to these changes: well, United States, it's about time! For far too long, so much of the language we use in the US when discussing immigration has been bizarre and dehumanizing. Officials talk about catch and release", as if they are chatting about fish when they're really talking about people's lives. The term migrant caravans", meant to summon images of marauders, is used to describe people searching for refuge together while risking everything in the process. Our southern border is routinely described as being beset by swarms, hordes, swells, or surges, terms that evoke insects or ocean catastrophes - anything, in other words, but people.