BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE
Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson, Chair
2015-2016 Regular Session
AJR 38 (Eduardo Garcia)
Version: April 27, 2016
Hearing Date: June 28, 2016
Fiscal: No
Urgency: No
RD:ks
SUBJECT
Foreign nationals: CHANGE Act
DESCRIPTION
This measure would urge Congress to pass, and the President to
sign, the Correcting Hurtful and Alienating Names in Government
Expression (CHANGE) Act to prohibit federal executive agencies
from using the derogatory term "alien" to refer to individuals
who are not a citizen or national of the United States.
BACKGROUND
This measure is part of a growing movement to eliminate the
terms "alien" and "illegal alien" as they refer to immigrants in
state and federal laws, as well as in journalism. According to
the author, the use of such terms is outdated and derogatory,
and should be eliminated from official government usage. In
early 2013 several media outlets, including the Associated Press
and the Los Angeles Times issued guidelines that "illegal
immigrant" would no longer be used to label a person, and that
articles should instead describe the individual's circumstances.
Likewise, in March 2016 the Library of Congress announced it
would be removing the term "illegal alien" as a bibliographical
term. Last year, California enacted SB 432 (Mendoza, Ch. 160,
Stats. 2015) to eliminate references to "alien" throughout the
Labor Code. This Committee also recently approved legislation
that would remove the term of "alien" from a Civil Code statute
that provides for equal property rights for all people
regardless of citizenship status. (SB 1351, De León, 2016.)
Of particular relevance to this resolution, the 114th U.S.
AJR 38 (Eduardo Garcia)
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Congress has introduced H.R. 3785, the Correcting Hurtful and
Alienating Names in Government Expression (CHANGE) Act, which
prohibit federal executive agencies from using the terms "alien"
and "illegal alien" to refer to immigrants and, instead, require
usage of the terms "foreign national" and "undocumented foreign
national," respectively.
This measure seeks to urge the federal government to enact the
CHANGE Act.
CHANGES TO EXISTING LAW
Existing state law includes numerous references to "alien," to
describe noncitizens, including but not limited to the following
code sections: Business and Professions, Civil, Education,
Government, Health and Safety, Health, Insurance, Labor,
Military and Veterans, Penal, Probate, Public Contract, Public
Resources, Revenue and Taxation, Unemployment Insurance,
Vehicle, Welfare and Institutions, and article XIII of the
California Constitution relating to taxation.
Existing federal law includes several references to "illegal
aliens," including, but not limited to the following:
Section 501 of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986
(8 U.S.C. Sec. 1365);
Section 421(5)(A)(ii)(II) of the Congressional Budget and
Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. Sec.
658(5)(A)(ii)(II));
Section 432(e) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C.
Sec. 240(e));
Section 439(a) of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death
Penalty Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. Sec. 1252c(a));
Section 280(b)(3)(A) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8
U.S.C. Sec. 1330(b)(3)(A));
Section 286(r)(3)(ii) of the Immigration and Nationality Act
(8 U.S.C. Sec. 1356(r)(3)(ii));
AJR 38 (Eduardo Garcia)
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Section 332 of the Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Act,
1997 (8 U.S.C. Sec. 1366);
Section 411(d) of the Personal Responsibility and Work
Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. Sec.
1621(d)); and
Section 106(e) of the Public Works Employment Act of 1976 (42
U.S.C. Sec. 6705(e)).
This measure would declare, among other things, that:
California has over 10 million immigrants, coming from more
than 60 countries, who are projected to make up 27 percent of
the state's population in 2030;
immigrants are a keystone of our culture, politics, and
society, and have helped shape the identity of California;
more than a third of the working-age adults in the state are
immigrants, contributing to the state's entrepreneurial and
economic success;
immigration remains at the center of national debate, and that
the terms "illegal" and "alien" when used in reference to
people have undergone demeaning and derogatory connotations
and are increasingly associated with racist sentiments;
the legitimacy of the word "alien" as a legal definition is
being called into question with the state's passage of Senate
Bill 432 (Mendoza, 2015), and there is a growing trend among
prominent media and newspaper organizations to stop using the
terms "illegal" and "alien" to describe people immigrating to,
and residing in, the United States; and
states that H.R. 3785, also known as the Correcting Hurtful
and Alienating Names in Government Expression (CHANGE) Act,
has been introduced in the 114th Congress to prohibit federal
executive agencies from using the derogatory term "alien" to
refer to individuals who are not a citizen or national of the
United States.
This measure would urge the United States Congress to pass, and
the President of the United States to sign, the CHANGE Act.
COMMENT
AJR 38 (Eduardo Garcia)
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1. Stated need for the bill
According to the author, "[c]urrent law uses the term 'illegal
alien' to describe a person who is not a citizen or national of
the United States. This language is derogatory and antiquated
and this [measure] would seek means to remove and replace this
word with the word 'foreign national.' This would complete the
effort made by the [L]egislature to completely remove the term
'illegal aliens' from the California code and to move society
forward away from this term."
2. Passage of H.R. 3785 would have practical significance for
proposed state legislation
Staff notes that the author of this resolution also has
legislation before the Legislature that would remove references
to "alien" or "illegal alien" in the Education Code and replace
them with references to "foreign national" or "undocumented
foreign national." (AB 1850, E. Garcia, 2016.) That bill,
however, makes these changes to certain provisions contingent
upon the enactment of federal legislation, given the relation of
those provisions to the federal Immigration Reform and Control
Act of 1986 (IRCA). Specifically, in order to maintain
consistency with IRCA, AB 1850 would make the change in
terminology within certain sections operative only upon
certification of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to the
Secretary of State that this terminology has been changed by
enactment of H.R. 3785, or an equivalent measure, to replace the
term "alien" with the term "foreign national" when used to refer
to an individual who is not a citizen or national of the United
States, and replace "illegal alien" with "undocumented foreign
national' when used to refer to an individual who is unlawfully
present or who lacks a lawful immigration status in the United
States.
Stated another way, with the passage of H.R. 3785 or an
equivalent measure which would prohibit federal executive agents
from using the terms "alien" and "illegal alien" to refer to
immigrants and undocumented immigrants, the author's bill, AB
1850 (if enacted) would be able to trigger similar changes in
the California Education Code, including within sections of that
code pertaining to, for example, the internment of persons of
Japanese ancestry and Japanese Americans during World War II,
determination of a student's residence, and adult education.
AJR 38 (Eduardo Garcia)
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As of the writing of this analysis, however, the CHANGE Act has
not yet advanced in the House of Representatives. Accordingly,
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.
3. Growing national trend toward using the term "undocumented"
instead of "alien"
In 2013, the Pew Research Center noted that several news
organizations, including the Associated Press and the Los
Angeles Times, had announced a ban on the term "illegal
immigrant" because they said it lacked precision and broadly
labeled a large group. Their analysis of the 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 percent in usage in contrast to other periods studies, where
its use had consistently been in the double digits, peaking at
21 percent in 2007. In addition, the use of "undocumented
immigrant" and other alternative terms increased, from 1 percent
in 2007 to 3 percent in 2013. (Guskin, "Illegal,""undocumented,"
"unauthorized": News media shift language on immigration," Pew
Research Center (Jun. 17, 2013)
[as
of Jun. 18, 2016].)
The Library of Congress has taken steps to eliminate the term
"illegal alien," announcing in late March of this year that it
would no longer use that term as a bibliographical term.
According to an L.A. Times article, the Library of Congress had
used the term "illegal alien" as a catalog subject heading since
1993, and the term "aliens, illegal" since 1980. (Padilla and
Rivera, Library of Congress to stop using term 'illegal alien,'
Los Angeles Times (Apr. 3, 2016)
[as of Jun. 18, 2016].).
Support : None Known
Opposition : None Known
HISTORY
AJR 38 (Eduardo Garcia)
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Source : Author
Related Pending Legislation :
AB 1850 (E. Garcia, 2016), would replace the word "alien" with
the term "foreign national" in the California Education Code.
These changes to specified provisions of the Education Code will
take place only if the Superintendent of Public Instruction
certifies to the Secretary of State of California that this
terminology has been changed in federal law. The bill is
currently in the Senate Appropriations Committee.
SB 1351 (De León, 2016) would strike the term of "alien" from a
Civil Code statute that provides for equal property rights for
all people regardless of citizenship status, and replace the
term with "noncitizen." The bill is currently in the Assembly.
Prior Legislation : SB 432 (Mendoza, 2015) deleted the
definition of "alien" in Labor Code describing a person who was
not born in or a fully naturalized citizen of the United States.
It also deleted a provision requiring those preferences be
applied to the extension of public works employment during
periods of unemployment in the state.
Prior Vote :
Assembly Floor (Ayes 61, Noes 9)
Assembly Judiciary Committee (Ayes 7, Noes 1)
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