Chicago City Wire

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has rejected the use of the term "illegal aliens" when referring to immigrants in the city. During a press conference on Saturday, Johnson was asked by reporters about providing an accounting to the federal government regarding city spending on immigrants without legal status.

"We don’t have illegal aliens," Johnson said. "I don’t know if that’s from some sort of sci-fi message for which you’ve had."

He continued by drawing parallels between terminology used for immigrants and historical language directed at African Americans. "Listen, the legal term for my people were slaves. You want me to use that term, too?" he stated.

Johnson also criticized how some members of the media discuss immigration issues, urging them to consider their choice of words. "Let’s just get the language right," he told reporters. "We’re talking about undocumented individuals that are human beings. The last thing that I’m going to do is accept that type of racist, nasty language to describe human beings."

The mayor later shared a clip of his remarks on Instagram with the caption: "This isn’t a sci-fi show. These are human beings. We will not abandon our humanity to score cheap political points."

Johnson has previously linked criticism of his administration’s handling of immigration and other policies to anti-black racism and has compared former President Donald Trump’s immigration policies to those of the Confederacy, suggesting they target black Americans as well as immigrant communities.