MIAMI - Immigrant advocates are urging retailers to pull a Halloween costume depicting a space creature in orange prison garb emblazoned with the words "illegal alien," while a group that supports strict immigration laws says such a move impinges on freedom of speech.

Beyond the holiday uproar, the dispute highlights the controversial nature of the phrase illegal alien — still the government's official term for those in the country without a visa, though many national politicians and media increasingly avoid using it.

Since Friday, when the Coalition for Humane Immigration Rights in Los Angeles first raised the issue, companies including Target, Walgreens and eBay have removed the costume from their inventory. Still, many local retailers continue to stock the costume that also comes with a "green" card — which technically makes the alien legal.

At costume stores in Miami, the responses have been mixed.

Don King, whose mother immigrated from Cuba, bought pirate and Homer Simpson costumes Tuesday at Halloween USA in midtown Miami, where the costume is on sale but has attracted few customers. "It's a joke," King said. "I really don't think much of it."

A few miles away in the Little Havana neighborhood, workers at a popular costume store said it was not something they would carry because it was discriminatory. They do stock a human taco costume, replete with a Mariachi hat.

Perpetuating a stereotype?
Cashier Carmen Torres, who recalled facing discrimination after arriving from Cuba as a young girl in the 1960s, said the costume was tasteless. "They haven't done anything bad. you can punish those who are criminals, but not people who are trying to, trying to work," Torres said.

Target has said it sold the costume online only and that it was posted by accident because it did not meet the company's standards. eBay said it asked sellers to remove the costume because it "does not allow items that promote or glorify hatred, violence, racial, sexual, or religious intolerance, or promote organizations with such views."

Jorge-Mario Cabrera, a spokesman for the immigrant coalition, said the costume "perpetuates this idea we have about undocumented immigrants as alien foreigners, strangers, scary."

Cabrera said he knew the costume could be taken as a play on words but the jumpsuit was too close to what many immigrants must wear in detention centers, "where they can spend months at a time, and where there is a lot of suffering."

"That the creature was holding a green card was a stab at a (broader) community," he said, because it suggests even with a legal document, immigrants are still scary criminals.

Free speech
But William Gheen, head of the North Carolina-based political action committee Americans for Legal Immigration, said efforts to get stores not to sell the costume amounted to an attack on freedom of speech. He urged Americans to buy the costumes in protest.

"I looked at the costume and thought it was kind of funny. The only thing that wasn't funny was how many illegal immigrants are in this country," said Gheen, who has given speeches suggesting Latin Americans are bringing an epidemic of tuberculosis to the U.S., despite government figures showing the illness is at an all-time low.

Please explain how an illegal alien is a race.

it's rude and stupid, and anyone who wears it is an idiot, but stores should be allowed to sell it.

How is it an attack on freedom of speech if retailers don't sell it? Who's restricting whose speech? Xenophobic douchebags are perfectly capable of expressing their paranoid and racist delusions about illegal immigrants all they want if retailers decide not to sell this costume and retailers should be under no obligation to cater to their needs.

DERKA DER!

How is it an attack on freedom of speech if retailers don't sell it? Who's restricting whose speech? Xenophobic douchebags are perfectly capable of expressing their paranoid and racist delusions about illegal immigrants all they want if retailers decide not to sell this costume and retailers should be under no obligation to cater to their needs.

Men in Black did this joke in 1997.

It's not racist.

Now, there was a version where the alien was wearing a sombrero and a large mustache, that is arguably racist. But this one? No.

It's certainly not clever, but it's not racist.

A few miles away in the Little Havana neighborhood, workers at a popular costume store said it was not something they would carry because it was discriminatory. They do stock a human taco costume, replete with a Mariachi hat.

What about a trucker hat and mustache?



I could see this one being seen as racist, but not the original. I hate whiny PC people.

I'd wear it. Countries should be able to make fun of people who exploit them.

They do stock a human taco costume, replete with a Mariachi hat.

No one said you weren't allowed to.

It would just make you a prick, is all.

I'd wear it. Countries should be able to make fun of people who exploit them.

I don't see how that costume is racist. Now if it came with a sombrero, a Mexican looking mustache, a was called Pablo the illegal alien then i could see it being raciest.

Now, there was a version where the alien was wearing a sombrero and a large mustache, that is arguably racist. But this one? No.

They should pull axe-murderer costumes too because thats offensive to people who have been victims of axe murder.

Thats the winning post of this thread, folks


Theres nothing wrong with that costume, it just shows how politically correct America has become.

I live in Miami, I am Cuban, my family came here in a way that isn't really legal. (However, thanks to wet foot/dry foot that doesn't really matter) Anywho, that's not offensive, its just really corny and should be pulled from shelves for the lameness of the joke.

They should pull axe-murderer costumes too because thats offensive to people who have been victims of axe murder.

I think it's a pretty funny costume. Don't see very much wrong with it to be honest.