Thread: A federal appeals court coined the term “illegal alien” in 1950

Letter: ‘Illegal alien’ is a descriptive, helpful legal term

Published:October 14, 2015 4:11PM

In his Oct. 9 opinion piece “Let’s retire illegal alien,” criticizing that helpfully descriptive term, Antonio Sierra quoted Atlantic Monthly writer Garrett Epps regarding “one of the earliest uses” of such language, in a Stanford Law Review article. Good find.

But what Sierra omitted is that Epps had identified an even earlier appearance, writing “The earliest use of the term I can find is in 1950, when a federal appeals court used it to describe a Polish-born Mexican citizen whom Immigration and Naturalization Service officers had arrested.”

Fancy that: A federal appeals court! Judges at that level generally are sticklers for precise language. So we shouldn’t be surprised that “illegal alien” appears in fundamental U.S. law. One example is Title 8, Section 1365 of the United States Code, entitled “Reimbursement of States for costs of incarcerating illegal aliens and certain Cuban nationals.” (The text of that section also employs the term.)

On the other hand, Sierra’s favored language, “undocumented immigrant,” is clearly intended to make it sound as if what’s at issue is a mere paperwork snafu of negligible importance, rather than the serious lawbreaking inherent in illegal immigration.

People who obscure what’s at stake by beating their drums for euphemisms like “undocumented immigrant” bring to mind George Orwell’s great essay, “Politics and the English Language.” A highlight: “Political language … is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”

Paul Nachman
Bozeman, Montana

http://www.eastoregonian.com/eo/lett...ful-legal-term

The term “illegal immigrant,” according to the Oxford English Dictionary, originated in the late 1930s to mean “a Jew who entered or attempted to enter Palestine without official permission during the later years of the British mandate.

“Illegal alien” appears somewhat later; the earliest use I can find is in 1950, when a federal appeals court used it to describe a Polish-born Mexican citizen whom Immigration and Naturalization Service officers had arrested while he was attempting to swim back across the Rio Grande:

“The United States would have been quickly and cheaply relieved of an illegal alien, had appellant swum the river that night according to plan.” (It pops up again a few years later in a Stanford Law Review article engagingly titled “Wetbacks: Can the States Curb Illegal Entry?”) http://www.jstor.org/stable/1226253?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/...ndment/407158/

8 U.S. Code § 1365 - Reimbursement of States for costs of incarcerating illegal aliens and certain Cuban nationals

Current through Pub. L. 114-38. (See Public Laws for the current Congress.)

• US Code
• Notes

(a)Reimbursement of States
Subject to the amounts provided in advance in appropriation Acts, the Attorney General shall reimburse a State for the costs incurred by the State for the imprisonment of any illegal alien or Cuban national who is convicted of a felony by such State.


(b)Illegal aliens convicted of a felony
An illegal alien referred to in subsection (a) of this section is any alien who is any alien convicted of a felony who is in the United States unlawfully and—(1)whose most recent entry into the United States was without inspection, or

(2)whose most recent admission to the United States was as a nonimmigrant and—(A)whose period of authorized stay as a nonimmigrant expired, or

(B)whose unlawful status was known to the Government,

before the date of the commission of the crime for which the alien is convicted.


(c)Marielito Cubans convicted of a felony
A Marielito Cuban convicted of a felony referred to in subsection (a) of this section is a national of Cuba who—(1)was allowed by the Attorney General to come to the United States in 1980,

(2)after such arrival committed any violation of State or local law for which a term of imprisonment was imposed, and

(3)at the time of such arrival and at the time of such violation was not an alien lawfully admitted to the United States
(A)for permanent or temporary residence, or

(B)under the terms of an immigrant visa or a nonimmigrant visa issued,

under the laws of the United States.


(d)Authorization of appropriations
There are authorized to be appropriated such sums as are necessary to carry out the purposes of this section.


(e)“State” defined
The term “State” has the meaning given such term in section 1101(a)(36) of this title.


(Pub. L. 99–603, title V, § 501, Nov. 6, 1986, 100 Stat. 3443.)

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/8/1365

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