Council Member Francisco Moya at the virtual city council hearing (Twitter)
May 29, 2020 By Allie Griffin
The City Council voted to axe the terms “alien” and “illegal immigrant” from all official city documents, laws and rules Thursday.
The terms are offensive and discriminatory toward undocumented immigrants, said Elmhurst Council Member Francisco Moya, who introduced the bill in January.
The term to replace the phrases will now be “noncitizen.”
“No human being is illegal,” Moya said. “‘Illegal immigrant’ and ‘alien’ are dehumanizing and divisive and they don’t belong our city’s guiding documents.”
Council Speaker Corey Johnson praised the bill’s 46-4 vote. He said New York City is the first city to end the use of the terms in their official documents.
BREAKING: New York City just became the first major U.S. city to prohibit the use of the dehumanizing and offensive term “alien” in local laws, rules, and documents. From now on, the term will be “noncitizen.”
— NYC Council Speaker Corey Johnson (@NYCSpeakerCoJo) May 28, 2020
Four council members voted against the bill, including Glendale Council Member Robert Holden.
“It’s like the speech police is out again,” Holden told the New York Post. “Alien is a term used for someone who is from another area, another land. That’s a term used in Congress and in the government.”
5 Comments
This is incredible. These politicians are being paid by the taxpayers who reside here legally and who expect them to work for them. But in reality all they want to benefit is illegal immigrants. If the government no longer works for its people. Time to vote them out.
What an incredible feat! Omg! See kids here is a real leader, he didnt waste anytime during the lockdown. He didnt sit and sulk. No sir. He worked on something important like removing 2 words. Amazing. Just like curing cancer or finding world peace. Call off the competition and just Get this man the nobel peace prize!
Fine. Now maybe he can do some actual work by doing something about the gang activity, prostitution, drug dealing, and daily stabbings that plague his district.
Start with the old lady selling flowers and tamales
The city is in deep financial trouble, has a growing homeless population, increasing crime, a shrinking middle class, is not business friendly, and isn’t able to control the spread of coronavirus in low income areas…but this is what the city council chooses to focus on?
I’m a brown minority myself, but these politicians disgust me with their political correctness. It achieves nothing.