BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AJR 38
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AJR
38 (Eduardo Garcia)
As Introduced April 27, 2016
Majority vote
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|Committee |Votes|Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
|Judiciary |7-1 |Mark Stone, Burke, |Wagner |
| | |Chau, Chiu, Cristina | |
| | |Garcia, Holden, Ting | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY: Urges Congress to enact H.R. 3785 (CHANGE Act) which
would prohibit federal executive agencies from using the
derogatory terms "alien" and "illegal alien" to refer to
immigrants, and that would trigger similar changes in the
California Education Code, pending the outcome of current state
legislation. Specifically, this resolution:
1)Finds and declares that California has over 10 million
immigrants, coming from more than 60 countries, who are
projected to make up 27% of the state's population in 2030.
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2)States that immigrants are a keystone part of our culture,
politics, and society, have helped shape California's strong
identity; and finds that more than a third of working-age
adults in the state are immigrants, contributing largely to
our state's entrepreneurial and economic success.
3)States that immigration remains at the center of national
debate, and that terms "illegal" and "alien," when used in
reference to people, have undergone demeaning and derogatory
connotations and have become increasingly associated with
racist sentiments.
4)States that the legitimacy of the word "alien" as a legal
definition is being called into question with the passage of
Senate Bill 432 (Mendoza), Chapter 160, Statutes of 2015, and
finds that prominent media and newspaper organizations
nationwide have stopped using the terms "illegal" and "alien"
to describe people immigrating to, and residing in, the United
States.
5)States that H.R. 3785 has been introduced in the 114th
Congress, also known as the Correcting Hurtful and Alienating
Names in Government Expression (CHANGE) Act, that would
prohibit federal executive agencies from using the derogatory
term "alien" to refer to an individual who is not a citizen or
national of the United States.
6)Urges Congress to pass, and the President of the United States
to sign, the CHANGE Act.
FISCAL EFFECT: None.
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COMMENTS: This measure urges Congress to enact H.R. 3785
(CHANGE Act), pending federal legislation which would prohibit
federal executive agencies from using the derogatory terms
"alien" and "illegal alien" to refer to immigrants, and that
would trigger similar changes in the California Education Code,
pending the outcome of the author's bill AB 1850 of the current
legislative session, recently approved by this Committee.
According to the author:
Current law uses the term "illegal alien" to describe a
person who is not a citizen or national in the United
States. This language is derogatory and antiquated and
this bill would seek means to remove and replace this
word with the word "foreign national." This would
complete the effort made by the legislature to
completely remove the term "illegal aliens" from the
California code and to move society forward away from
this term.
Contingent relationship between the federal CHANGE Act and
current state legislation. Legislation pending in Congress,
titled the "Correcting Hurtful and Alienating Names in
Government Expression (CHANGE) Act" (H.R. 3785, Castro) would
prohibit an executive agency from using the terms "alien" and
"illegal alien" in any rule, regulation, interpretation,
publication, other document, display, or sign issued by the
agency, and instead replace the term "alien" with "foreign
national," and "illegal alien" with "undocumented foreign
national." Pending state legislation, AB 1850, by the same
author of this measure, would make similar changes in the
California Education Code. Specifically, AB 1850 would replace
the word "alien" with the term "foreign national" in specified
provisions of the Education Code only if the Superintendent of
Public Instruction certifies to the Secretary of State of
California that this terminology has been changed in federal
law. Because of their relation to the federal Immigration
Reform and Control Act of 1986, for purposes of consistency AB
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1850 would not codify such changes to the Education Code unless
identical changes are also enacted in the federal statutes. At
this time, however, the CHANGE Act has not yet advanced in the
House of Representatives; thus, this measure reflects the
author's effort to have the Legislature urge Congress to pass
the CHANGE Act so that such terminology would be replaced in
federal law as well as in California law.
Recent movement away from the use of the term "illegal alien" by
journalists and government institutions when referring to
immigrants. This bill is another step in a growing movement to
eliminate customary usage of the term "illegal alien" in state
and federal laws, as well as in journalism and library practice.
The Pew Research Center noted in 2013 that several news
organizations, including The Los Angeles Times and The
Associated Press, announced a ban on the term "illegal
immigrant" because they said it lacked precision and broadly
labeled a large group. Their analysis of terminology used by
the news media in stories about immigrants found that the use of
the term 'illegal alien' reached its low point in 2013, dropping
to 5% of terms used-in contrast to the other periods studied,
where its use had consistently been in double digits (peaking at
21% in 2007). According to the Pew Center study, this
corresponded with increased use in the press of alternative
terms such as "undocumented immigrant" or "undocumented person"
over that time period
Last year the Legislature approved and the Governor signed SB
432 (Mendoza), Chapter 160, Statutes of 2015, which eliminates
references to "alien" throughout the Labor Code. In a Los
Angeles Times editorial, Senator Mendoza was quoted as saying:
"'Alien' is now commonly considered a derogatory term for a
foreign-born person and has very negative connotations. The
United States is a country of immigrants who not only form an
integral part of our culture and society but are also critical
contributors to our economic success."
Finally, even the Library of Congress has taken steps to
eliminate the term "illegal alien" by announcing in late March
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that it would no longer use that term as a bibliographical term.
According to a recent article in the L.A. Times, the Library of
Congress has used the term "illegal aliens" as a catalog subject
heading since 1993, and before that they had used the term
"aliens, illegal" since 1980. ("Library of Congress to stop
using term 'illegal alien'"; Los Angeles Times, April 3, 2016.)
Analysis Prepared by:
Anthony Lew / JUD. / (916) 319-2334 FN: 0003414