Thread: Retired immigration judges: We used 'illegal alien' and got axed

By Elizabeth A. Hacker, Mahlon F. Hanson Published September 17, 2015 FoxNews.com

The Obama administration, a compliant media and the “political correctness” word police have taken control of the immigration debate with an agenda of deception, doublespeak and censorship.

As retired immigration judges and Department of Justice attorneys responsible for the proper enforcement of our immigration laws, we have often been asked for our opinion of the current state of our immigration enforcement policies.

These inquiries have motivated us to write commentaries expressing our concerns over the Department of Homeland Security’s failure to enforce our immigration laws as written, the promotion of amnesty and open border ideologies, and the implementation of immigration policies by executive action rather than under the rule of law.

These articles have been published on the blog of immigration enforcement advocate the Immigration Reform Law Institute and, until recently, by a subscription legal news source that characterizes itself as a trusted news source for top lawyers, business leaders, federal agencies and the entire U.S. federal judiciary.

Censorship of legal and factually correct terminology not only limits debate, but it forecloses the ability of those not intimately familiar with the debate to understand all sides.

We say “until recently” as we have now received word from their newly-constituted immigration lawyer editorial board that they will not publish our recent submission relating to sanctuary cities unless we delete from our commentary the term “illegal alien,” which they perceive to be derogatory and/or inflammatory. Their rationale is that the term “illegal” applies to actions, not individuals. The red-line copy that we received in return replaced the term “illegal alien” with the term “undocumented immigrant.”

We refused to comply with their editorial demand and explained to the editorial board that the term “undocumented immigrant” is factually and legally inaccurate and deceptive in nature.

We explained that the term is factually incorrect because many of the aliens illegally present in this country have documents. These documents may range from those unlawfully obtained, like social security cards or social security numbers, fraudulent drivers licenses, or other documents legally obtained such as "cedulas" ("Cedulas" is the term commonly used for matricular identification or driver documents issued by the Mexican government to its citizens in the United States.) or licenses.

Also, the term “immigrant” only applies to a person who has either legally entered the United States as a lawful permanent resident or has been adjusted to that status while in the United States.

We also explained that the term is legally incorrect for several reasons.

First, the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), our nation’s immigration law, does not use the term. Instead, the law expressly uses the term “illegal alien” when referring to a person who has either illegally entered the United States or violated the terms of their admission, such as overstaying a visa. For example, in Title V of The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which added provisions to the INA, there are five references to “illegal alien” alone while the term “undocumented” is not mentioned once.

We also drew the board’s attention to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit’s recent pronouncement in the Texas v. USA case challenging President Obama’s executive actions granting de facto amnesty to certain illegal aliens where the court likened the term “undocumented immigrant” to “near-gobbledygook.” The court stated in full:

There is some confusion--not necessarily in this case but generally--regarding the proper term for non-citizens who are in the United States unlawfully. The leading legal lexicographer offers the following compelling explanation:

The usual and preferable term in [American English] is illegal alien. The other forms have arisen as needless euphemisms, and should be avoided as near-gobbledygook. The problem with undocumented is that it is intended to mean, by those who use it in this phrase, “not having the requisite documents to enter or stay in a country legally.” But the word strongly suggests “unaccounted for” to those unfamiliar with this quasi-legal jargon, and it may therefore obscure the meaning. More than one writer has argued in favor of undocumented alien . . . [to] avoid[ ] the implication that one’s unauthorized presence in the United States is a crime . . . . But that statement is only equivocally correct: although illegal aliens’ presence in the country is no crime, their entry into the country is. . . . Moreover, it is wrong to equate illegality with criminality, since many illegal acts are not criminal. Illegal alien is not an opprobrious epithet: it describes one present in a country in violation of the immigration laws (hence “illegal”).

BRYAN A. GARNER, GARNER’S DICTIONARY OF LEGAL USAGE 912 (Oxford 3d ed. 2011) (citations omitted).

We noted further to the board that the Supreme Court of the United States and every federal circuit court of appeals use the term “illegal alien” when referencing someone not lawfully present in the United States.

In fact, a Lexis search for the term “illegal alien” in the “US Courts of Appeals Cases” database produces an alert that the “search (‘illegal alien’) has been interrupted because it will return more than 3000 results.” The same result is obtained when a similar search is performed in the “US District Court Cases” database. The same search in the “State Court Cases” database produces 1,942 cases. It is therefore evident that the legal consensus is that the legal term of art “illegal alien” is the precise and appropriate term when referring to an individual who is in the United States contrary to law.

Our protest resulted in no legal or factual rebuttal. Instead, the editors simply reiterated that they would not allow us to use the term. The editors did replace the term “undocumented immigrant” in the red-line edition of our article with the term “unauthorized alien.” This alternative term, however, is equally lacking in factual or legal integrity.

Who has not “authorized” these aliens? The term also does not encompass the full spectrum of those aliens illegally present in this country, nor is it the legally accepted term.

We find the attempts to censor our work to conform and promote the editorial board’s political ideologies as much more oppressive, derogatory, and inflammatory to the American ideals of freedom of thought, expression, and open debate than use of the only factually and legally accurate reference for those aliens who have no legal status or entitlement to remain in the United States. (The authors did try to comply with the demands of the "new" editorial board, however, they stopped short of eliminating the proper terminology relating to aliens illegally present in the United States.)

The demand of the editorial board to substitute the term “undocumented immigrant” for the factually and legally correct term “illegal alien” is a classic example of the type of doublespeak/newspeak that has come to populate the field of debate.

According to William Lutz, author of the 1996 book “The New Doublespeak,” doublespeak is “language which makes the bad seem good, the negative seem positive, the unpleasant seem unattractive, or at least tolerable.”

In the immigration debate, the principles of “Newspeak” and “Doublespeak” are being used to change the perception of aliens illegally present to the more liberally accepted term “undocumented immigrant.”

A variety of motivations underlie this effort, but regardless of intent, those who object to the use of the term “illegal alien” appear to believe that if they can convince the American public that illegal immigration is not really illegal, then amnesty no longer is amnesty, and enforcing immigration law is unnecessary.

The use of "politically correct" terminology to change the fundamental character of the underlying concept or item has its origins in novels such as “1984” and “Animal Farm.”

How could we forget Squealer’s use of propaganda to convince the others that truth was false and lies were truth. While Orwell may have first described the use of doublespeak and newspeak to alter the truth, there is much in the immigration debate that has taken this to a new level.

Censorship of legal and factually correct terminology not only limits debate, but it forecloses the ability of those not intimately familiar with the debate to understand all sides. We can only surmise that this may be the intent of the editorial board of this well-known legal resource.

A recent example in academia shows the lengths some will go in fostering this type of doublespeak is the determination by several professors at Washington State University to actually lower grades of students who include the term “illegal alien” in work submitted in their classes. (Professors Selena Breikss and Rebecca Fowler’s syllabi at ccgrs.wsu.edu both contain language imposing grades reductions and suspensions from class for the use of terms such as, “illegals or illegal aliens.”)

The Associated Press has announced that it will no longer use the term “illegal alien” in its articles. Like the animals in Orwell’s classic, we suffer from a heavy dose of doublespeak which is designed to limit the ideals of freedom of expression, thought and the exchange of ideas.

Why is debate being stifled in the immigration arena? The immigration debate is in the process of being closed to all but a favored few. These favored few are those authors who kowtow to the liberal media’s demand for doublespeak like that in the novels “1984” and “Animal Farm.”

The use of deceptive semantics alters the dialogue and is neither warranted nor acceptable in public debate.

Judge Hacker was appointed as a United States Immigration Judge in July 1995 to re-establish an Immigration Court in Michigan, which was expanded under her tenure to include jurisdiction over immigration proceedings in Ohio and northern Kentucky. She has held numerous positions within the former Immigration & Naturalization Service (INS) including naturalization attorney, trial attorney, and chief attorney for three immigration districts, including Los Angeles.

Judge Hanson was appointed as a United States Immigration Judge at the Miami Immigration Court in March 1995 and served in that capacity until July 2010. From May 1987 to June 1994, he served as Deputy Regional Counsel in St. Paul, Minnesota and then Deputy District Counsel in Miami, Florida from June 1994 to March 1995. From August 1983 to July 1986, he served as a judge with the Minnesota Workers Compensation Court of Appeals, and from July 1986 to May 1987 he served as Chief Judge.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2015/...gal-alien.html

Published September 17, 2015FoxNews.com

A pair of veteran immigration judges have left a widely read legal journal over its ban on the term "illegal alien," calling the decision a case of the "political correctness word police" taking control of the immigration debate.

Retired U.S. Immigration Court judges Mahlon "Mick" Hanson and Elizabeth Hacker, who wrote opinion articles for Law360's "expert analysis" section since the beginning of this year, say they used the term "illegal alien" without issue. But when they submitted an article in July on sanctuary cities, the editors of the publication declined to publish it unless certain changes were made, including the removal of the term illegal alien.

"Language must conform to Law360 style, avoiding what is perceived to be derogatory reference to 'illegal aliens,'" Christian Lewis, assistant managing editor of Law360, wrote in a July 30 email to Dale Wilcox of the Immigration Reform Law Institute, who was submitting the piece on behalf of the judges because they are IRLI board members.

"The only legally correct term is 'illegal alien.'"

- Retired US Immigration Judge Mahlon Hanson

"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," Lewis wrote.

Law360 -- a subscription, legal news source which boasts a readership of 400,000 and is operated by the Portfolio Media company, a subsidiary of LexisNexis -- first suggested the judges change the language to "undocumented alien" and then "unauthorized alien." In addition, Lewis questioned the sources used by the seasoned immigration jurists in writing their piece, which roundly criticized sanctuary cities following the July 1 murder of 32-year-old Kathryn Steinle. Francisco Sanchez, an illegal alien, is accused of killing Steinle, who was shot while walking with her father in San Francisco. Sanctuary cities are communities that have an official policy of not cooperating with federal authorities in the detention of illegal immigrants or handing them over for deportation.

The judges said they were "shocked" by the editorial board's insistence the term not be used -- noting the Immigration & Nationality Act and its various amendments use "illegal alien," as do judges presiding over immigration law cases nationwide. A LexisNexis search of the term's use in case law generates thousands of examples.

Hanson and Hacker said they trimmed their article at the editors' request and clarified their sources, but refused to resubmit the piece with language they deemed legally incorrect.

"I was, quite frankly, very surprised," Hacker told FoxNews.com. "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."

"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," Hacker said.

"The only legally correct term is 'illegal alien,'" added Hanson.

In an email to FoxNews.com, Law360 explained that it is simply complying with The Associated Press guidelines for journalists. In 2013, the AP dropped the use of the word "illegal" to describe a person who enters or resides in a country in violation of civil or criminal law.

"Like many other news organizations, Law360 follows Associated Press style on the use of the term "illegal immigrant," Cat Fredenburgh, editor-in-chief of Law360, said in the email. "Per AP, Law360 uses the term 'illegal' to refer only to actions, not people. Law360 requires all third-party contributors to comply with our style guidelines.

"Hon. Elizabeth Hacker and Hon. Mahlon Hanson submitted an article for publication with Law360 but withdrew the article upon learning of Law360's policy against the use of the term 'illegal' to refer to people," Fredenburgh said. "We did not ban the judges from writing for Law360. In fact, we suggested ways the article could still be published while complying with our style. The judges' decision to withdraw the article from consideration with Law360 was theirs alone."

The editorial board's style change -- and the reason for it -- did nothing to persuade the judges to resubmit their piece.

"I think it's basically a propaganda tool when The Associated Press is starting to tell reporters what term to use," Hanson said.

"It's really disappointing because they advertise themselves as a trusted legal resource," he said of the law publication. "You know how definitions are important in court cases in using the precise legal terminology...I was surprised that they pushed it to that extent."

In an Op-Ed published Thursday for FoxNews.com, Hacker and Hanson blamed the Obama administration and other factors for changing the terms of the illegal immigration debate to push an agenda.

"This administration, a compliant media and the 'political correctness' word police have taken control of the immigration debate with an agenda of deception, doublespeak and censorship."

Of the term "undocumented immigrant," Hacker and Hanson said it is "factually incorrect because many of the aliens illegally present in this country have documents."

"These documents may range from those unlawfully obtained, like Social Security cards or Social Security numbers, fraudulent drivers licenses, or other documents legally obtained such as 'cedulas' or driver’s licenses," they said. "Also, the term 'immigrant' only applies to a person who has either legally entered the United States as a lawful permanent resident or has been adjusted to that status while in the United States."

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/09/17...illegal-alien/

Now we have editorial boards rewriting legal terms, or attempting to bury law and order in America. Have'nt we had enough to demand our constitutional rights to dispel tyrannical government?

Fine. Replace "illegal alien" with "alien illegally present".

How about "foreign criminal"?

Until the laws are changed it is illegal alien! I will not stand by while AP editors rewrite law, because people's minds and attitudes will be influenced by the absence of the use of illegal alien. If the laws specify illegal alien, that is what they are, illegal aliens! Remember, the elite own the editors, and you are now allowing the elite to hire cheap labor by influencing you and others!

The sound: "Undocumented Immigrants",
visually looks like this: