President Biden is already enforcing his decency

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CNNโ€™s Catherine Shoichet reported that in his first full day in office, President Biden made it known that he wants to remove the insensate word โ€œalienโ€ from the countryโ€™s immigration laws. The new term would be โ€œnoncitizen.โ€ Words matter, just as how we treat others matters. How we treat noncitizens says a lot about who we are as a nation, although many on the right donโ€™t consider treating others with dignity and respect to be essential values. We are, in fact, a nation of immigrants; most of us donโ€™t have roots here that go back terribly far. Weโ€™re also a nation built on largely stolen land, so itโ€™s quite disingenuous to call those who come here seeking better situations โ€œillegal aliens.โ€

The use of โ€œnoncitizenโ€ is inclusive and humane. No matter where one stands on immigration issues, one thing we should be able to agree on is empathetic, compassionate terminology. Of course, weโ€™ve just emerged from four heinous years of anti-immigrant policies and inappropriate rhetoric used as weapons against noncitizens, so one can just imagine the eye-rolling in right-wing circles. But regardless of what the backwards Republicans think, weโ€™d do right to move ahead with this change in how we refer to noncitizens.

We already see more civil discourse with the new administration, which will no doubt be a competent and benevolent one. The theocrats and right-wing politicians will continue to be uncivil and coarse in their behaviors, but those of us on the left can be better than that. We donโ€™t need to dehumanize noncitizens, and it certainly takes little effort to change our heretofore callous wording.

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