Dehumanizing language should not be allowed

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

I think you’re at least partly correct (and with a cite for the US Congressional sources would agree you’re entirely correct). I’ve finally found something of a cite that’s online (earlier, @SCAdian referenced their offline copy of OED), and it says:

[Activist] Vargas ventured a guess on his Facebook page this afternoon, pointing to a 1939 article that appeared in the Times of London. “The earliest recorded use I could find … was in 1939, when the London Times used the term to describe Jewish migration to Palestine,” he wrote, pasting the article to his page:
…
Not to be nitpickers, but we found an even earlier reference in a 1937 New York Times article about an 18-year-old Cuban girl who attempted suicide while being taken to Ellis Island

So I withdraw that comment, and appreciate your correction. The rest of what I said–that everyone from Elie Wiesel to the AP Style Guide have objected to the term–remains intact.