AP style guide drops the term 'illegal immigrant'

For AP reporters from now on, and those many institutions that let the Associated Press Stylebook be their guide, persons are no longer illegal but actions can be. Thus there will be people who enter or live in the United States illegally. But editors will strike the terms "illegal immigrants" or "illegals" — referring to people — in stories that go out on the wire.

Here's the new style entry:

illegal immigration Entering or residing in a country in violation of civil or criminal law. Except in direct quotes essential to the story, use illegal only to refer to an action, not a person: illegal immigration, but not illegal immigrant. Acceptable variations include living in or entering a country illegally or without legal permission.

Except in direct quotations, do not use the terms illegal alien, an illegal, illegals or undocumented.

Do not describe people as violating immigration laws without attribution.

Specify wherever possible how someone entered the country illegally and from where. Crossed the border? Overstayed a visa? What nationality?

People who were brought into the country as children should not be described as having immigrated illegally. For people granted a temporary right to remain in the U.S. under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, use temporary resident status, with details on the program lower in the story.

Just last October, in the second look at the issue in a year, AP restated in a press release that "illegal immigrant" was fine, if not applicable to every situation. "Illegal immigrant" was better than saying a person was undocumented or unauthorized, AP proclaimed at the time: "Those terms obscure the essential fact that such people are here in violation of the law. It’s simply a legal reality." AP Senior Vice President and Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll explains why the change now. Excerpt:

The discussions on this topic have been wide-ranging and include many people from many walks of life. (Earlier, they led us to reject descriptions such as “undocumented,” despite ardent support from some quarters, because it is not precise. A person may have plenty of documents, just not the ones required for legal residence.)

Those discussions continued even after AP affirmed “illegal immigrant” as the best use, for two reasons.

A number of people felt that “illegal immigrant” was the best choice at the time. They also believed the always-evolving English language might soon yield a different choice and we should stay in the conversation.

Also, we had in other areas been ridding the Stylebook of labels. The new section on mental health issues argues for using credibly sourced diagnoses instead of labels. Saying someone was “diagnosed with schizophrenia” instead of schizophrenic, for example.

And that discussion about labeling people, instead of behavior, led us back to “illegal immigrant” again.

We concluded that to be consistent, we needed to change our guidance.

LA Observed photo of border fence near El Centro, CA