Bill would mandate nicer term for illegals - "An alien to me is someone from out of space."

[The Straight Story]

TALLAHASSEE -- A state legislator whose district is home to thousands of Caribbean immigrants wants to ban the term "illegal alien" from the state's official documents.

"I personally find the word 'alien' offensive when applied to individuals, especially to children," said Sen. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami. "An alien to me is someone from out of space."

She has introduced a bill providing that: "A state agency or official may not use the term 'illegal alien' in an official document of the state." There would be no penalty for using the words.

In Miami-Dade County, Wilson said, "we don't say 'alien,' we say 'immigrant.'"

She said she encountered the situation when trying to pass a bill allowing children of foreigners to get in-state tuition at colleges and universities. Wilson, who directs a dropout prevention and education program in Miami, said she politely asks witnesses at public hearings on such issues not to use the term.

http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070227/NEWS01/70227062/1075

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. Good for her!

[AnnieBW]

2. The Grey Lobby

Will be upset at that. They'll probably kidnap her and fit her with an anal probe. :D

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

3. I am an alien

and I am not ashamed of that. I know it is a legal term, just like 'immigrant' is. You can be a legal alien/immigrant or an illegal one. Why get offended by a word like 'alien'?

[IntravenousDemilo]

4. What a dope...

Of all the possible things to be concerned about, she picks (invents) this asinine "problem". Perhaps Sen. Wilson has far too much free time on her hands, or she's watched too many movies about little green men. The law does not really care what the Senator subjectively feels when she hears the word "alien", nor should it.

"Immigrant" is a specific term that applies to people who actually "immigrate", with all the attendant paperwork and bureaucratic steps leading towards landed immigrant status and perhaps later, citizenship. An alien is just a visitor to your country who has no legal standing as a landed immigrant, or who may or may not have permission to be in your country. Non-citizens who have work visas or green cards or whatever, that allow them to live and work in the States, are resident aliens. Then there are tourists. When I visit the US, I am an alien, and I see no insult in being considered one. A refugee is also an alien, but not an "immigrant" until he starts the immigration process. All "alien" means, really, is "foreign" or "not from there".

An illegal alien is an alien who has not asked permission to be in the country in the first place -- i.e., by not going through Customs and Immigration -- or who has outstayed his legal welcome when the term of his visa has expired.

[morningglory]

5. My mother was from the horse/buggy days,

She never understood daylight savings time. Always wanted to know what time it was "really". We are near the CST/EST line. In addition she was schizophrenic, contracted malaria here in the swamps of Florida, and had to quit school in the 6th grade. Overly religious. She watched shows on tv about space aliens and illegal aliens and got them all mixed up. Illegal aliens from Nassau, twisted in her mind to have something to do with NASA and outer space. With huge eyes she once said a van was stopped in California and when the opened the doors it was "FULL of aliens!!" Well, this just gives you all another great impression of us Floridians, but I just had to throw it in. She was born in a very rural pocket, lived uneducated, never sick a day in her life, and then bam! schizophrenia!

[Bronyraurus]

6. And...

the debasement of the English language marches on.