Judicial newspeak on immigration A dispute has been brewing in federal courts about what to call people who are in this country unlawfully. In the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, Judge Beverly Martin, an Obama appointee, has taken to writing concurring opinions in which says these people should be called “non-citizens” rather than “illegal aliens.” See here, here, and here. Judge Lisa Branch, a Trump appointee, has pushed back. She notes that the statute at issue in these cases says “alien” and it’s not the job of judges to rewrite statutes. On Power Line, I use a third term — “illegal immigrant” — because that’s what these people have generally been called in common parlance, I think. However, if I were writing a legal brief or opinion on immigration law, I would refer to them as “illegal aliens,” like the statute does.