Two immigration judges have parted ways with a respected legal journal over the ban of the term “illegal alien,” calling the editorial decision “political correctness word police,” Fox News has reported.
The judges, Mahlon Hanson and Elizabeth Hacker, both retired U.S. immigration court judges wrote opinionated articles for Law350. They had previously used the term “illegal alien” without issue, however this July when they submitted an article on sanctuary cities, the editors refused to publish it unless they omitted the term.
Christian Lewis, assistant managing editor of Law360, wrote:
“Language must conform to Law360 style, avoiding what is perceived to be derogatory reference to ‘illegal aliens.'”
This was in a July 30th email to Dale Wilcox of the Immigration Reform Law Institute. Wilcox submitted the article on behalf of the judges because they are IRLI board members.
The email continued:
“I understand based on the authors’ June 10 article that they believe this is a semantic argument, however our publication does follow the rule that ‘illegal’ applies to actions, not individuals.”
Hacker told Fox News:
“I was, quite frankly, very surprised […] We had submitted several other articles to them on immigration-related issues and had used that term, which we consider to be the legally correct term.”
She continued:
“I don’t want to use inappropriate language, which in my opinion is designed to deceive people as to the state of affairs in the immigration area.”
US Immigration lawyers in Thailand Chaninat and Leeds have decades of experience helping Thai nationals obtain US visas.
Critics of the term say that the word “illegal” should only apply to actions, and not to people.
This comes after last month’s news that under California State labor law, the term “alien” will no longer be used, deeming it to be derogatory.
See the full story here.
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