U.S. immigration agencies drop use of terms like "illegal alien" and "assimilation"

The leaders of the two U.S. immigration enforcement agencies on Monday directed staff to use words like "noncitizen" and "integration" instead of "alien" and "assimilation" as part of a Biden administration effort to discard immigration terms viewed as dehumanizing, according to memos obtained by CBS News.

Troy Miller and Tae Johnson, the interim heads of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), issued separate memos outlining new guidelines governing the use of certain immigration terms in internal and external communications, like public statements.  The memos instruct ICE and CBP employees to use "migrant" or "noncitizen" instead of "alien." The latter term is found in U.S. law, where it is used to refer to a wide-ranging group of immigrants, from those without legal permission to be in the country, to green card holders. Advocates have long derided the term, saying it has contributed to the dehumanization of immigrants.