The I-word

     The phrase "illegal immigrant" has been dropped from the AP Stylebook as reported in The Washington Post article mentioned in our reading assignments. AP Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll said the AP will not use “illegal” to describe a person. Instead illegal will be used to describe an action only. There is a general shift away from labeling people based on their behaviors.

     I know when I was working for newspapers, the style was “undocumented immigrants,” which also was dropped by the AP.

     So what is the new preferred phraseology. The AP calls for detail: "Specify wherever possible how someone entered the country illegally and from where. Crossed the border? Overstayed a visa? What nationality?" 

     Jonathan Rosa, a linguistic anthropologist at the University of Massachusetts opts for the more concise "unauthorized migrant."

      That still doesn’t answer the question of what to call those who have entered the country illegally.

     The Los Angeles Times and the New York Times are expected to come out soon with their own guidelines.

     Instead of using "undocumented immigrant" or an alternative descriptor like "unauthorized," the new AP stylebook entry recommends avoiding that sentence construction altogether.

     It's incorrect to describe a person as illegal, even if he or she has committed an illegal act, said Michael Oreskes, AP senior managing editor. Thus, "illegal immigration" is acceptable while "illegal immigrant" is not. "Undocumented" was rejected because people may have documents, just not the right ones.

     There was a time when, the Los Angeles Times used "illegal alien." But that faded away in the 1990s. Since then, writers have been told to use "illegal immigrants" while avoiding "illegal aliens" and "illegals."

     So, that’s is totally confusing, and I still don’t know how to use the I-word.

Jerry L. Miller

Sparks High School

Sparks, Nevada