Target online arm stops sales of 'illegal alien' costume
By Matt O'Brien

Posted: 10/16/2009 05:12:35 PM PDT
Updated: 10/16/2009 06:12:23 PM PDT


WALNUT CREEK β€” Offended customers prompted Target on Friday to remove an "illegal alien" Halloween costume it was selling online.

"This is not in keeping with our brand," said Target spokesman Joshua Thomas, who said the costume designed by another vendor was never meant to be uploaded to Target.com, the retailer's online store.

The costume features an alien mask of the extraterrestrial kind and an orange jumpsuit with the words "illegal alien" emblazoned on the front. A green cardboard card, which says "green card," is an accessory with the $39.99 outfit.

"This was inadvertently uploaded to Target.com. It was never intended to be part of our original assortment," Thomas said Friday. "This costume was never seen in our review process."

He said executives learned about the item late on Thursday and immediately began to pull the item from its site, though that will not happen until later today or sometime tomorrow.

Several other companies also are selling the costume. It has upset some immigrant groups who say it further alienates people already subject to hatred.

Some were uncertain whether the costume was intended as insult or satire.

"I think it's a social commentary on the absurdity of calling undocumented workers illegal aliens," said Jorge-Mario Cabrera of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. "Whether it's tasteful or not,

I think the consumers will have to decide."

The first person to review the costume on Target's Web site, a self-described professor from Chicago, was not impressed.

"The costume is a sick sign of the times we are living in this country where those who are not 'people like us' might as well be from another planet and are considered less than human," the anonymous customer wrote.

But other retailers selling the costume online said it was popular and clients across the country were ordering it.

"Look: It's just for fun," said Stephanie Lewis of Tarzana-based online retailer Halloween Costume World. "We sell pregnant nuns and all sorts of things. It's just like a joke, no one's trying to make fun of anyone."

The manufacturer, she said, was a company on the East Coast. Representatives of that company could not be reached for comment.

There are strong differences in opinion on the terms used for people who live in the United States without authorization. Most immigrant advocates consider "illegal alien" an offensive phrase. Although the word alien has been used in American law since the 18th century to describe a noncitizen β€” not necessarily one here illegally β€” the word took on new connotations in popular science fiction of the past century.

"I don't know if calling this creature an illegal alien helps or hinders dialogue," Cabrera said. He was going to ask Target to stop selling it before finding out it already had.

The costume is also not the only one that groups say are perpetuating stereotypes of immigrants this Halloween season.

Alejandro Martinez, a blogger who runs the Bordertown Blues site, was perusing a costume store near his Texas home when he saw an "illegal alien" costume he described as vile and unkempt. He photographed the mask, which mixed the exaggerated features of a space alien with the thick mustache of a stereotypical Mexican immigrant.

"I was offended because my family came to the U.S. illegally but ended up obtaining American citizenship," Martinez wrote in an e-mail Friday. "Costumes like these, I believe, are a mere step away from a Sambo mask to mock African Americans. Truly sad."


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