By Daniella Prieshoff
Last year, my client Susan called me to discuss her immigration case.
During our conversation she referenced the news that immigrants were being bused from the southern border to cities in the North, often under false promises, only to be left stranded in an unknown city.
In confusion and fear, Susan asked me: “Why do they hate us so much?”
While I couldn’t answer Susan’s question, her underlying concern highlights a startling escalation of public aggression against migrants over the past year.
There seems to be a growing “us” versus “them” mentality towards immigrants. This divisive language serves no purpose other than to divide our country, undermine the legal right to seek asylum in the United States, and cultivate a fear of the most vulnerable.
A clear example is showcased in recent media coverage of northbound migration across the U.S.-Mexico border. Many outlets describe recent migration through the Americas as a “flood,” “influx,” “wave,” or “surge”— language that reinforces the notion that migration is akin to an imminent, uncontrollable, and destructive natural disaster.
These descriptions are accompanied by sensational photographs and videos of long lines of brown and Black immigrants wading across the Rio Grande, crowding along the border wall, or boarding Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) vehicles to be transported to detention.
Woven into this framing is the near-constant use of the term “illegal” or “unlawful” to describe unauthorized crossings. As an advocate for immigrant survivors of domestic violence, sexual violence, and trafficking, I’m alarmed by the use of this language to describe a migrant’s attempt to survive.
Moreover, it’s often simply incorrect. A noncitizen who has a well-founded fear of persecution in the country from which they’ve fled has a legal right — protected under both U.S. and international law — to enter the United States to seek asylum.
When mainstream media wield the term “illegal” as though it were synonymous with “unauthorized,” they misinform readers and falsely paint asylum seekers as criminals.
Worse still, they encourage politicians who call immigrants themselves “illegals,” a deeply dehumanizing term. And the more dehumanizing language we use, the more likely it is that we will see immigrants as the “other” to justify cruel immigration policies.
We must retire the use of this inflammatory rhetoric, which distracts from real solutions that would actually serve survivors arriving at our borders.
Migrants expelled back to their home countries are at grave risk of severe harm or death at the hands of their persecutors. Those forced to remain in Mexico as they await entry to the United States are increasingly vulnerable to organized crime or abusive and dangerous conditions in detention.
And those who have no choice but to desperately navigate dangerous routes to the United States to avoid apprehension are increasingly dying by dehydration, falling from cliffs, and drowning in rivers.
The words we use in everyday discourse mean something — they can spell out life or death for those among us who are most vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. Now more than ever, I’d urge the public and the media to retire the use of sensationalizing, stigmatizing, and misleading imagery and rhetoric surrounding immigration.
Now is the time to apply accuracy and humanity in our depictions of migrants. Let’s not repeat the errors of our past.
Daniella Prieshoff is a Senior Supervising Attorney at the Tahirih Justice Center, a nonprofit that supports immigrant survivors of gender-based violence. She thanks Phoebe Quinteros for her contributions to the research for this piece.
Cid says
So you don’t believe in being lawful? If they cross the border ILLEGALLY, then they are ILLEGALS AND UNLAWFUl. Just because you don’t like a word doesn’t mean they don’t have definitions.
John B Citizen says
At least the language is better now than it was in the ’70s. I used to arrive at JFK airport in New York on transatlantic flights which were always met at Immigration by two black-clad officers each holding the leash of a German Shepherd and shouting “US Citizens to the right…. ALIENS to the left !
Welcome to The United States……
Be Happy says
We all must do our part to help these immigrants. So what if you have to wait an extra hour or two in the emergency room or maybe can’t get an appointment with a doctor for a few weeks or a month. These people need access to our SNAP program, Medicaid and any other safety net that was designed for the citizens of this country. Hand it all to these newcomers to our country and embrace them. These are minor inconveniences in making their dreams come true.
Pierre Tristam says
My very exact at JFK, July 19, 1979, even as a Green Card holder. I’d only been speaking English for a year. I thought I was going to have close encounter of the fourth kind.
jr06712 says
And you do know these people do not qualify for these programs unless they have a child in the us. Sarcasm at its best correct? Maybe you would rather this people be put against the “wall” and just shot? That would make a lot of people in the country happy. Maybe they could do a live video all day long on this. What say you? (Sarcasm at it’s best.)
Anon says
What no if they r illegal they don’t deserve anything same if we entered there country illegally
PeachesMcGee says
We can’t help our own citizens properly, let alone illegal immigrants who are storming our borders by the tens of thousands.
As our immigrant forefathers did…do it the RIGHT and LEGAL way. You should not benefit from our benefits until you’re a citizen. Period.
DaleL says
In 1970, immigrants (foreign born) were 5% of the total US population. Today they are almost 15%. The number of new immigrants in 1970 was just less than 10 million that year versus more than 45 million today. That is 4.5 times higher. As a percentage of the population of the US, that is still an increase of 3 times relative to our country’s population (200 million in 1970 versus 340 million today).
So when media outlets describe recent migration through the Americas as a “flood,” “influx,” “wave,” or “surge”, it is not inaccurate.
It is true that any person has a right to seek asylum in the USA. However, they do not have a right to cross into the USA other than at legal immigration locations. Anyone, who inters the US without authorization is subject to deportation. Anyone, who has been deported from the US, and returns without authorization has committed a criminal offense and thus is an “ILLEGAL” immigrant.
Immigrants, as a percentage of the US population are the highest since 1910. The number of immigrants in the US illegally, is also the highest ever.
To solve this crisis, Congress (Republicans) needs to drastically increase the US Immigration & Border Security budget. Lawful immigrants should to be processed in a humane speedy fashion and provided with assistance. Immigrants without authorization to be in the US, need to be promptly deported. Illegal immigrants, (repeat offenders), need to be prosecuted and if convicted, jailed. Then, after their jail terms are completed, they should be deported. Businesses, that knowingly employ immigrants who are here without authorization or illegally, need to be held accountable.
https://www.migrationpolicy.org/programs/data-hub/charts/immigrant-population-over-time
oldtimer says
I guess this is why the language police want to stop using the word pedophile because it’s offensive to people who want to rape children.
Florida Voter says
Here’s an idea:
Let’s get rid of quotas and fund our immigration courts so that those individuals can get legal status, tax ID numbers, etc. Let’s help the people who make an effort to be in this country (instead of a coincidence of birth). Help people work, pay taxes, and contribute to our society.
Instead of looking at the number of illegal immigrants as the fault of the immigrants, let’s look at the problem as a lack of support and infrastructure in America.
Dennis C Rathsam says
Lets call a spade a spade, A person who enters the USA legally, like our grand parents, through Ellis Island, or what ever legal port of entry. Today,s problem is these people are ivaders. They are breaking the law, already on the books. They are invading our country. We dont even know who they are, they seem to disapear in the night. We dont have enough beds for all the homeless we have now. People living on the streets….People with no food…This is a created mess by Biden & his cronies. You are witnessing America,s darkest hour.
Aves says
I got engaged in Sep 2020, had to wait for the fiance visa to be approved until March 2022, brought my partner in and got married in April 2022 and submitted for a green card. He got it April 3rd of 2023. Wasn’t able to work or to travel back to his home country during that period, and I wouldn’t have been allowed to access food stamps even as a legal citizen b/c I was supporting him.
My grandmother married an American in 1950, entered the country five weeks later, and immediately got a job. None of the shit that my husband and I had to deal with, she had to deal with.
As the grandchild of legal immigrants, it’s apples to oranges now.
Aves says
I replied in a post above that it took almost 2 years for a fiance visa to be approved and then my spouse couldn’t get a GC to work for a full year. My grandmother came over in the 50s and got a job a month after arrival. Damn straight that we should make it faster.
Sherry says
Thanks so much DaleL. . . you are absolutely correct!
Sherry says
@DCR. . . Please “educate” yourself on a subject before posting. The actual “facts” are that there is NO “Ellis Island”, or anything like it, anymore!
Today, the U.S. government faces an enormous challenge. The number of asylum seekers seeking to enter each day is significantly higher than the number the United States can process at official border crossings. The location and manner of crossings varies widely across the border, often changing unpredictably based on misinformation, rumor, or the demands of powerful transnational criminal organizations which maintain control over many of the migration routes with a bloody fist. The system is constantly at risk of bottlenecks and overcrowding, building the perception of chaos at the border. And inside the United States, underfunding, neglect, and deliberate sabotage have left the adjudicatory process in shambles.
There are currently more than
1.3M
pending asylum applications, and the average asylum case in immigration court now takes
4.25 years
from start through a final hearing.
The failure to build a modern and functional system of humanitarian protection extends throughout the asylum process. There are currently over 1.3 million pending asylum applications, including roughly 750,000 in immigration courts and over 600,000 at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The average asylum case in immigration court now takes 4.25 years from start through a final asylum hearing, leaving those with meritorious claims stuck in legal limbo and those whose claims are denied facing the prospect of deportation after they have already put down roots in the United States. Decades-old laws require asylum seekers to wait months to gain work authorization, leaving communities inside the United States to step in and help people get on their feet.
Rather than making a sustained investment into building a better system, past presidential administrations have attempted over and over again to instead use aggressive enforcement- and deterrence-based policies in hopes of reducing the number of people who are permitted to apply.
DaleL says
The past presidential administrations have attempted for better and worse to handle this problem. However, it is Congress which establishes budgets and authorizes spending. It is Congress which is tasked with providing the money for building a better system. It is also Congress that passes the laws that the President must enforce.
Too much of today’s immigration and border control budget is being spent on a revolving door of apprehension and deportation. This leaves too little left over for timely processing legitimate immigration requests.
I do not mean to let Clinton, Bush, Obama, Turnip, or Biden off the hook. However, immigration law and the budget to enforce it comes from Congress. Both parties have controlled Congress at various times during the last 30 years. Both parties are responsible for this mess.