Undocumented or Illegal?

Four years ago, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists launched a campaign to change the terms that news organizations use to refer to people who enter the country illegally. Rather than referring to them as “illegal immigrants,” as the Associated Press Stylebook recommends, or the more loaded “illegal alien,” NAHJ proposed using the term “undocumented immigrant.”  “It is much easier to dehumanize and to silence somebody when you’re calling them an illegal,” says Ivan Roman, executive director of NAHJ. “When you don’t give credibility to people, and you don’t give respect to people, it is really easy for politicians to not take them into account when they are establishing policy.”

The American Journalism Review reports that a recent analysis of the frequency with which “illegal immigrant” turns up in U.S. newspapers and wire services reveals that usage has declined since 2006―but the term still shows up fairly frequently, as it has for decades.”

KJ