Bill > S1446

Introduced Session

This bill replaces the terms "alien" and "illegal alien" in the New Jersey statutes with the terms "foreign national" and "undocumented foreign national," respectively, when referring to a person in the context of his legal status. This bill also ensures that executive branch agencies discontinue use of those terms. This bill removes from State law the offensive language characterizing persons who are immigrants as "aliens" or "illegal aliens" and prohibits State executive agencies from using those terms in any proposed or final rule, regulation, interpretation, publication, or other document, display, or sign issued by the agency after the effective date of this bill, except to the extent that they are used in quoting or reproducing text written by a source other than an officer or employee of the agency. Similar legislation was introduced in Congress on October 21, 2015, by Congressman Joaquin Castro. The United States is a nation of immigrants, and as such, our laws should discontinue the use of terms that ostracize those in our society who may have been born elsewhere. Regardless of status, immigrants to our nation are first and foremost human beings. Removing the terms "alien" and "illegal alien" from this State's laws shows respect to the hundreds of millions of descendants of immigrants who call the United States home. Especially in the context of an issue as contentious as immigration, discontinuing use of the terms "alien" and "illegal alien" will help reduce the prejudice that has skewed discussions concerning immigration and offer recognition of immigrants' personhood in the laws of this State.

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Nilsa Cruz-Perez (D)*, 

Reported from Senate Committee with Amendments, 2nd Reading (on 09/27/2018)