Latino, Other Lawmakers Oppose GOP Requiring Use of ‘Alien,’ ‘Illegal Alien’

*Remember how Rep. Joaquin Castro had written a letter suggesting that the federal government stop using the term “illegal alien,” and how the Library of Congress decided it would no longer use the term as a bibliographical reference, and that Tom Graves, a GOP Representative from Georgia, shepherded a bill through the Appropriations Committee to force the Library to reinstate the term? OK, so this is the latest. VL

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By Stephen A. Nuño, NBC News (3 minute read)

Republicans are rejecting the latest attempt to clean up the government’s language that historically has used disparaging terms for people in the U.S.

Republicans have included in a House spending bill a measure that would require the Library of Congress to use the terms “aliens” and “illegal aliens” in their subject headings, even though the library decided to drop the terms.

The provision in the 2017 Legislative Branch spending bill has drawn backlash from the Tri-Caucus, made up of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), and the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). The spending bill that contains the measure provides funding for House operations, such as members’ salaries and money for supporting agencies such as the Government Accountability Office.

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The Tri-Caucus members’ opposition was expressed in a letter delivered to the House Appropriations Committee . . . READ MORE 

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[Phot courtesy of Greg Barker Online]

Suggested reading

In this innovative work that uses grocery stores as a guiding motif, Javier O. Huerta deftly combines English and Spanish to explore his identity as an immigrant, naturalized citizen, son, brother, lover, graduate student. Visits to grocery stores in the U.S. and northern Mexico lead to questions about himself. “I often wonder if I would have grown up thin had my family stayed and bought groceries in Mexico. The day we crossed the river my seven-year-old body had not an ounce of fat on it,” he remembers.

But he looks beyond his own personal circumstances as he explores the abundance of experience found in going to the grocery store. Through poetry written in Spanish, a short play, non-fiction passages and even text messages, Huerta delves into subjects such as consumerism and health foods available only to a limited class of people. The diverse pieces and themes in American Copia pulsate with all that can be both communal and autonomous in everyday life. Men take advantage of women; people protest against practices that place corporate profits above a fair wage for farmworkers; and, sometimes, people commit acts of violence.

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