Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) leadership has instructed employees to resume using the term "alien" in all internal and external communications, according to a leaked memo obtained by Axios on Tuesday.
The memo, issued by acting ICE Director Caleb Vitello, directs ICE employees to revert to statutory language, specifying the replacement of terms like "noncitizen" with "alien" and "noncitizenship" with "alienage." It also reverses the Biden administration's 2021 decision to adopt more inclusive language, replacing words like "alien" with "noncitizen", "undocumented noncitizen" or "undocumented individual" rather than "illegal alien" and "integration or civic integration" instead of "assimilation."
This change was part of Biden's effort to move away from the language and tone of the Trump administration, which referred to unauthorized immigrants as "illegal aliens" and described border crossings as an "invasion." At the time, a report by the Rand Corporation supported the Biden administration's move, recommending the discontinuation of racially charged terms.
As Axios reports, immigration advocates criticize the term for being offensive, while immigration restrictionists defend using "alien" because it's what's used in the Immigration and Nationality Act.
"Reverting back to the term "alien" was one of the first executive orders that Trump signed and it shows his intention to dehumanize non-citizens," explained Former ICE Attorney turned immigration attorney Veronica Cardenas to The Latin Times adding that:
"It's evident that his administration has been planning these harsh policies for years, from now being able to arrest and detain non-citizens at schools and places of worship to stripping away due process rights of those non-citizens living in the U.S. through his expedited removal policy. In order for Trump to have Americans on board, he must distance us from our neighbors, our restaurant workers, our nail technicians, and our farmers. The term alien, gets the foot through the door"
Hector Diaz, managing partner at Your Immigration Attorney, echoed Cardenas' comments when reached out by The Latin Times:
"By ICE using the term 'alien' they are going back to the original term that they used when referring to foreign nationals. As we know, when somebody starts an immigration process, whether it be deportation or for an immigrant visa or green card, ICE and USCIS label your case with an alien number, which becomes your case number. This started in 1933 when the department was called the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). At that time, immigrants were also seen as less than human, and therefore, they were called aliens"
For Díaz, this is much more than just a language preference: it sets the tone for how immigration enforcement will be carried out. "The message that ICE is sending to immigrants and their communities by changing the phrasing is that they are going to treat such persons not as human beings but as criminals," said Díaz. "There is no doubt that their public display of this word change is to communicate a hardline approach along with a public show of force, such as raids and roadblocks intending to intimidate our immigrant communities."
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