Why are we allowing the US to call illegal immigrants “illegal aliens”?

[KimGym]

I find this absolutely sickening!!!! It’s a disgraceful term to use and I feel as though if the US are going to use this disgusting terminology, it should at the very least, be censored in other countries. It is so disrespectful and dehumanising. It’s this sort of language that leads people (hopefully only those who have lacked a basic education) to deem immigrants to be sub human, and paves the way for public acceptance of them being treated in a sub human manner. AIBU to think this is totally abhorrant?

If this is the only thing you have to worry about OP, and you think that nonsensical complaints like this are being "progressive", then I both envy and seriously worry about you at the same time.

Exactly. The word alien is the least of their problems right now.

It’s been around ages but I agree, I don’t like the term. I feel it’s one more way of making people out to be different and less human. I prefer the term “undocumented person”.

There are 340 million people in the US, yet you talk about us as if we are one entity that all use the same language. Not all Americans use the term alien to refer to immigrants.

We do have a thing called freedom of speech however. Within the US we can't stop individual people using specific words, however repugnant.

Oh, and the other thing is that the UK certainly has, nor should it have, no jurisdiction over the language that people in the US use.

Alien is simply precise language. I understand when people complain about the use of the word “illegal” paired with anything because it implies criminality when the violations are in fact civil.

i don’t like the switch to “immigrant” because it implies transit from another country. That means a connection to a place they could return. Many people fighting to stay in the United States or elsewhere in the world have virtually no connection to their countries of birth. It’s not as simple as just going home if things don’t work out.

As a legal alien here in the USA, I can say I don't find it as offensive as them calling rubbish 'Trash' and aluminium foil 'Aloooooominum' as they always have. It just is what it is.

In some areas you hear far more offensive terms as its all about freedom of speech here. Argue with it and you can be easily reminded of the right to bear arms..... 😂

Edited for typo.

They still use handicapped instead of disabled. What can we do about it? Nothing.

There’s even a show on Netflix called that now…

No we don't. In fact we use person first language, so we would say a person with a disability not a disabled person.

You're getting het up over nothing. Alien just means Different/Strange/Other

I could say that the feeling of hate is alien to me.
Or I'm a Legal alien in New York

It's not derisory or nasty.

'Allowing' it? How would you suggest anyone make any government, let alone the government of another country, stop using any term they choose to use? There's nothing wrong with it, anyway. 🙄

I think you are massively over reacting. Alien is a widely used term around the world in the context of foreigners living away from their home nation. Just because you haven't encountered it elsewhere in that context doesn't mean its offensive. The word immigrant does not necessarily convey the same meaning - I can think of three countries that I lived and worked in on a temporary basis that required me to register as an alien, but that I had no intention of emigrating to and so was not an immigrant. To have called me an immigrant would have been incorrect.

Also, FWIW, the verb is emigrate not immigrate, and to emigrate is to permanently leave one's own country to settle in another. Which is why immigrant can't be used in the way you think it should - because not everyone intends moving permanently.

The former Home Office building in Croydon which dealt with immigration was called the Aliens Registration Office...

My mother's entry papers into the UK used the term 'alien'. It doesn't bother me, it just means someone who isn't a citizen.

How ridiculous! Look the word alien up in the dictionary! Of all the things to get in a huff about.

Write to the orange buffoon if you are that bothered.

The fundamental truth is that holes in communication will create words.

Just making one word "unacceptable" doesn't suddenly mean that there is no need for that word.

Weirdly I have just learned that "kleptomania" was created as a word so that naice ladies who were caught with unpaid goods in their pockets could avoid being called "common thieves" in court, but instead plead a mental disorder ...

https://www.freud.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Abelson-The-Invention-of-Kleptomania.pdf

It’s illegal alien on all legal documents and legislation. You may not like that, but your sensibilities put us on a euphemistic treadmill. Don’t like illegal alien, use migrant; oh, don’t use migrant use undocumented. And so on and so forth

Annoyingly reporting will often use the term ‘undocumented’ as if the problem is just a lack of paperwork rather than permission ….

I don't see the issue? Why do you think alien means sub human @KimGym ? It's just a word to describe someone from somewhere else.

Thats why it's used for space alien, because that means someone from another planet. The science fiction word came from the original meaning, not the other way round.

I think 'undocumented ' means they have not claimed asylum in the proper way but are living 'under the radar' as opposed to being a documented asylum seeker awaiting a decision.

But this means something different. You can be documented but still an alien!

Under U.S. immigration law, specifically the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) §101(a)(3), an "alien" is defined as any person who is not a citizen or national of the United States. This legal term is synonymous with a "foreign national" and covers all non-citizens, including lawful permanent residents (green card holders), nonimmigrants (visa holders), and undocumented individuals.

So it's the legal term embedded in US statute. Like we say trousers and they say pants.

What? Because it's the US they can do what they want

It’s none of our business what terminology other nations use . Think you need something more constructive to do with your time OP .

Surely Melania Trump has a US passport though, so she isn't an alien. She'd be a naturalised US citizen...?

They have an act enshrined in law called the Alien and Sedition act. You only need to read a book about American history to know they use this term regularly and it isn’t offensive over there.