Letter to the editor: Use of term 'illegal alien' diminishes fellow human beings - by Julia Shaida

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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This letter writer regurgitates the typical leftist slogans, but she clearly hasn't thought about the issue past what she's read on some leftist website. A little bit of independent investigation might perhaps lead her to more relevant and correct information, such as

Longstanding Supreme Court precedent recognizes Congress as having “plenary” power over immigration, giving it almost complete authority to decide whether foreign nationals ( “aliens,” under governing statutes and case law) may enter or remain in the United States.

We don't wish to be disrespectful, but Ms. Shaida simply doesn't know what she's talking about.
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Following the news of ICE deportations of immigrants with no criminal records to an El Salvador prison (Bloomberg News 4/9/2025), and Sen. Daines' recent bloodthirsty call for a mandatory death penalty for immigrants convicted of murder (BDC, 5/8/2025), ("Bloodthirsty?" It's seems to us that the murderer is bloodthirsty. If there was no murder there would be no need for retribution.)

I would like to question the use of the term "illegal alien."

Why are we accepting this phrase? "Alien" most commonly is used in science fiction, for a being from another planet. (Ms. Shaida appears to be ignorant. The use of the word "alien" has a long history in the legal sense. There's an entire body of federal law under U.S.C. Title 8, Aliens and Nationality. 

And has Ms. Shaida never heard of the "Aliens and Sedition Acts [1798]?") 

And how is it that we are considering a person to be "illegal"? An act can be illegal. But people are not "illegal." (A person is an alien by law if he/she is in the United States but is not a citizen. That is the actual legal way such a person is described. Thus a person who is in the United states and isn't a citizen and if his/her presence here is illegal, he/she is an illegal alien. The action of being in the US illegally is illegal. Simple.)

Such language twists our views of our fellow human beings. (So does calling someone a Nazi. Or authoritarian. Or extremist. Or a misogynist. Ms. Shaida is doubtless familiar with the common modern usage of these terms, and likely has uttered some of them herself. 

We therefore suspect her outrage at the dehumanizing nature of the phrase "illegal alien" is quite selective.)

It diminishes our ideas of the right behavior that we owe each other.

Immigrants commit fewer crimes than citizens born in the U.S. (see the National Institute of Justice report, 9/12/2024). (Well, Factcheck.org would disagree: 

The Justice Department keeps data on federal crimes committed by immigrants in the country illegally — and an analysis from the U.S. Sentencing Commission found that undocumented immigrants made up a disproportionate share of federal inmates sentenced for nonimmigration crimes in 2016.

And, the City of Denver might disagree with Ms. Shaida: 

A tougher approach on immigration and crime is yielding significant results in Denver, with the city experiencing a 58% drop in homicides...

Despite this, Sen. Daines and the Trump administration insist we are under invasion. (Crime and invasion are different topics.

If millions of aliens are coming across our borders, what else could it be called besides an invasion?

Of the 1.6 million-person increase in the population from 2022 to 2023, 1.1 million (68%) came from immigration, while 504,000 (32%) came from natural growth... the Office of Homeland Security Statistics estimates that there were 11 million unauthorized immigrants in the US as of the start of 2022)

Why the lies?

Our leaders are scapegoating a group of people to avoid addressing the real problems Americans face — lack of housing, the growing income gap between workers and the wealthy, exorbitant health care costs. (False choices. Ms. Shaida doesn't get to switch in her preferred issues to denigrate the thing she's criticizing.)

One result of this scapegoating is a spreading misconception that the rights in the U.S. Constitution, like the right to due process, apply only to citizens. No! (Shall we check the Constitution?

Fourteenth Amendment Section 1

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

A citizen is someone who is born in the US or is naturalized, and is subject to the jurisdiction of the United states. Such persons are entitled to equal protection.

Article IV, Section 2

The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.

A citizen of Montana, for example, is a citizen of the United States. There are certain privileges and immunities a citizen enjoys as a result. This clearly implies that a non citizen might not enjoy these.)

All people who reside in the U.S. are guaranteed these essential human rights. (Constitutional rights are not synonymous with human rights.)

I object to naming people "illegal" or "alien." I hope you will join me.