Two American states have banned state agencies from using the word “alien” to describe undocumented immigrants. The change was enacted into law in California and Colorado and several other states are considering similar legislation. Immigrants and immigrant-rights groups say the use of “alien” especially when combined with “illegal” is dehumanizing and can have a harmful effect on immigration policy. In California, Democratic lawmaker Luz Rivas wrote the bill that replaces use of “alien” in state law descriptions with terms such as “noncitizen” or “immigrant.” Rivas told The Associated Press that she remembered as a child seeing the word alien on her mother’s residency identification. To the government, it meant her mother was not yet a citizen of the United States. But to her, it meant the family did not belong, even though they were going through the naturalization process. “I want other children of immigrants, like me, to not feel the same way I did, that my family did, when we saw the word ‘alien’,” Rivas said.
