“Luz Rivas remembers seeing the word on her mother’s residency card as a child: “alien.”
In the stark terms of the government, it signaled her mother was not yet a citizen of the U.S. But to her young daughter, the word had a more personal meaning. Even though they were going through the naturalization process, it meant the family did not belong.
“I want other children of immigrants, like me, to not feel the same way I did, that my family did, when we saw the word ‘alien’,” said Rivas, now an assemblywoman in the California Legislature.”
At a young age, I learned how powerful words can be. I don’t want any other child to ever feel like I did – like my family did not belong in the US. That’s why I authored #AB1096 to remove the dehumanizing word, “alien,” from all of our state laws and was proud to have it signed into law in September.
Thank you to the AP for publishing this piece and highlighting how much work our country needs to do to restore dignity to immigrants. #NoOneIsAnAlien #ImmigrantStories
