<p>Texas Representative Joaquin Castro has started an initiative to remove the term &ldquo;alien&rdquo; from the federal government&rsquo;s lexicon. He believes the word is dehumanizing and compared it to &ldquo;lunatic&rdquo; and &ldquo;mentally retarded.&rdquo; ;</p>
<p>Castro argues that the word &ldquo;alien&rdquo; is used to &ldquo;dehumanize and ostracize&rdquo; anyone born outside the United States. &ldquo;Regardless of status, immigrants to our nation are first and foremost human beings,&rdquo; said the Texas democrat. ;</p>
<p>It seems Castro is confusing the term with the Hollywood definition (i.e. a little green man with a big head). &ldquo;Alien,&rdquo; a legal term that has been used for decades to describe someone immigrating to the United States either legally or illegally, is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as &ldquo;from another country.&rdquo; The dictionary also defines &ldquo;alien&rdquo; as ;</p>
<p><em>1. Not familiar or like other things you have known: different from what you are used to ;</em></p>
<p><em>2. Too different from something to be acceptable or suitable ;</em></p>
<p>Nowhere does that definition mention &ldquo;not human.&rdquo; Besides, when have you ever heard someone use the term &ldquo;alien&rdquo; as an insult? There are plenty of racial slurs and offensive terms hurled at immigrants, but alien is not one of them. ;</p>
<p>Immigration and tax laws use the word &ldquo;alien&rdquo; to describe a person who has come to the US from another country. In terms of immigration status, a &ldquo;nonresident alien&rdquo; is a person living in the US temporarily. A &ldquo;resident alien&rdquo; is a person who has been granted a green card, in other words, permanent permission to live and work in the US. ;</p>
<p>Castro believes that erasing the terms &ldquo;alien&rdquo; and &ldquo;illegal alien&rdquo; will &ldquo;help lessen the prejudice and vitriol that for too long have poisoned our nation&rsquo;s discussions around immigration reform.&rdquo; ;</p>
<p><em>His legislation has no hope of getting anywhere.  ;</em></p>
<p>What Castro seems to be forgetting is that it isn&rsquo;t the label, but the behavior of illegal aliens that upsets Americans. For someone who claims to love immigrants such much, I&rsquo;m surprised Representative Castro has chosen to spend his time on this wild goose chase instead of something that would actually improve immigrants&rsquo; lives. ;</p>
<p> ;</p>
<p> ;</p>