Illegal Alien Halloween Costume - Target

Looking for a Halloween costume?

Shop at Target online.

Target offers free shipping on 5000+ costumes for the entire family.

In the "Men's Humorous Costumes" section, there's a costume that's causing some controversy -- the "Illegal Alien."





For $39.99, you get a 3-piece costume. It includes an orange jumpsuit with "ILLEGAL ALIEN" printed on it, a space alien mask, and a green card. One size fits all (allegedly).

Sorry, no free shipping on this one. Note that it's not available in stores. It's available online only. I should say it was an online item.

Not everyone found this costume "humorous."

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A Southern California immigrant rights group on Friday asked Target stores and a costume company to stop selling an "illegal alien" Halloween costume it said is offensive to immigrants.
The costume features the mask of an alien with a green card and an orange jumpsuit with "illegal alien" written across the front.

Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, wrote e-mails to Minneapolis-based Target and Wisconsin-based BuySeasons, Inc. calling the costume "distasteful, mean-spirited, and ignorant of social stigmas and current debate on immigration reform."

The group said it also planned to send letters to other companies that are selling the costume.

Target is removing the costume from the site after receiving several complaints, company spokesman Joshua Thomas said Friday. The store never intended to sell the outfit but included it in its online offerings by mistake, he said.

When I saw this story, I went to Target's website and found the costume.

Shortly after I saw the controversial Halloween getup, it disappeared from the Target site.

I wonder how many of the outfits were sold before Target removed the item.

There's no question that the costume could be deemed offensive.

With 5000+ costumes available, there was no reason for Target to fight to keep selling an item that offended the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles.

Target has other costumes that are in questionable taste. Some play into ethnic stereotypes, like the "Tequila Pop N' Dude Costume".

I think this one is pretty gross, the "No Crap Costume."



Some of the costumes available for girls, tweens, and teens are pretty skanky.

Will NOW or other women's groups complain to Target and get those "distasteful" and demeaning costumes off the website?

Very unlikely.